Typically they are social, foraging and roosting in groups of two to six individuals.  They are also aggressively territorial – attacking other barbets and any other birds that try to intrude their trees.  They perform elaborate communications, with their greeting ceremony comprising of two or more birds engaged in an energetic display of bouncing, hopping, swinging and wing-flapping.

Breeding takes place between August to November.  They nest in cavities in the Fig Tree’s branches, and females lay between two and four eggs which are then incubated for up to 15 days.  Both parents share nesting and feeding of the newborn chicks.  But they are parasitised by Lesser Honeyguides, who lay their own eggs in the barbet’s nest, leaving their young to be raised by the barbets.

Barbets eat a wide range of fruits, including figs as well as cultivated fruit and vegetables.  The whole fruit is eaten and any indigestible materials, like seed pips, are later regurgitated.  They are therefore good seed dispersers.  They also eat a variety of insects, including ants, dragonflies, locusts, beetles, moths and scorpions as well as small reptiles such as frogs, geckos and lizards.