ABSTRACT
The New World barbets were once taxonomically lumped with the Old World barbets at the family-level, but the barbets are now treated as three distinct families placed in the order Piciformes with the woodpeckers. In fact, recent evidence suggests that Capitonidae are more closely related to the toucans, another exclusively New World family, and sometimes New World barbets are lumped together with Semnornithidae, the toucan-barbets, into the Ramphastidae. The Capitonidae probably warrant their own family status, forming a superfamily with Semnornithidae and Ramphastidae. Molt in barbets is poorly known, but should be expected to follow a Complex Basic Strategy. The juvenile plumage is weak, like in passerines, often lacks the gaudy colors of adults, and may get replaced quickly by an adult-like formative plumage, although the extent of this molt in most species is not known, but may regularly be partial as in Ramphastidae.
