The prong-billed barbet (Semnornis frantzii) is a distinctive, relatively large-billed bird native to humid highland forest of Costa Rica and western Panama.

Therefore New World (Capitonidae sensu stricto), African (Lybiidae), and Asian (Megalaimidae) barbets were each accorded their own families.

[6] Its specific epithet commemorates the German naturalist Alexander von Frantzius.

[citation needed] The prong-billed barbet is 17 to 18.5 cm (6.7 to 7.3 in) long and weighs about 60 to 70 g (2.1 to 2.5 oz).

Males have a glossy black tuft of feathers at the rear of the crown; females lack it.

[7] The prong-billed barbet is found in the mountains from Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilarán to western Panama's Veraguas Province.

It inhabits the interior and edges of extremely humid montane evergreen forest, a landscape characterized by many epiphytes and mosses and frequent fog.

[7] In the non-breeding season prong-billed barbets forage in flocks of up to 12 individuals, and roost communally in tree cavities with up to 16 in close association.