The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy treat it as one species with three subspecies.

The HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World treats the three as individual species.

The subspecies differ in their plumage, but all the males have a red face and crown and green to blue-green upperparts.

The male has a thin blue band behind the head like the "blue-moustached" form and a yellow malar.

It has successive bands of red, blue, and orange between its bill and its yellow upper breast.

[7] The nominate "blue-moustached" barbet is found from Peru's Cuzco and Puno Regions eastward to Cochabamba Department in north central Bolivia.

The "blue-cowled" form is found only in Peru, from west central Amazonas south to northern Huánuco.

It seeks arthropod prey by poking and tearing clusters of dead leaves.

The "blue-moustached" and "blue-cowled" forms are considered of Least Concern, though until 2020 the latter had been rated Near Threatened.