and flower petals. The exact composition of the diet varies by season, with insects being more commonly taken in April. The diet of nestlings has more insect prey than that of adults, with 54% being fruit and 42% being insects. The toucan barbet forages for 12 hours of the day around its territory, foraging from ground level to up into the canopy. It forages in small groups of up to six birds and sometimes forms mixed flocks with tyrant flycatchers, warblers, tanagers, and other frugivores. Breeding The toucan barbet is unusual among frugivorous birds in that it breeds cooperatively, with several helpers aiding the dominant breeding pair with incubation and raising the young. Groups are larger outside the reproductive season but generally shrink to three individuals in season, usually composed of previous immature offspring that stay with their parents and help with the new hatchlings. After the breeding season, the group increases due to greater acceptance of non-family members. These helpers significantly increase the reproductive success of the breeding pair. The breeding season of the toucan barbet is from February through to October. Pairs may have two or even three broods per year. The toucan barbet carves out holes in tree trunks with its powerful beak, in which it roosts and nests. The nesting holes are usually dug into dead trees, usually snags with broken trunks, or more rarely in a dead branch in a living tree. Both sexes incubated the eggs; in nesting sites without helpers, males took more of the incubation and brooding duties than females. The incubation period lasts 15 days, and the hatchlings fledge after 45 days. Juveniles look very much like adults, but have paler colors and black irises. Juveniles' plumage is kept for at least 2 months after fledging. Predators and parasites The toucan barbet competes with plate-billed mountain toucans for nesting sites, and that species also preys on young toucan barbets in the nest. White-faced capuchins and Neotropical dwarf squirrels are also treated as threats to nesting sites by family groups. Little is known of its parasites, but feather mites of the genera Picalgoides and Ramphastobius (specifically Ramphastobius callinoticus) have been found on them. Conservation The species is classified as near threatened by the IUCN. Though still fairly common locally, its populations have decreased due to habitat loss, accelerated by massive logging operations, deforestation, cattle grazing, and mining. Illegal trapping for the local