The bearded barbet was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[4] Both Gmelin and Latham based their description on "Le Barbican" that had been described and illustrated in 1780 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon.

The massive bill is very thick and yellow, and the well developed clump of bristles at its base give the species its name.

[9] The bearded barbet is a common resident breeder in tropical west Africa.

It is an arboreal species of gardens and wooded country which eats fruit, although the young are fed on insects.