Males have distinctive black (spotted white), red, and yellow plumage; females and juveniles are similar, but less brightly colored.

[2] Red-and-yellow barbet adult males have distinctive plumage made up black with spotted white, red and yellow.

The breast is orange to red-orange, becoming more yellow at the sides, with a dark band with white spots crossing through the middle.

[2] The female is similar to the male, but is, overall, much duller, with less red and orange, and more yellow and white.

[2] The nominate subspecies, T. e. erythrocephalus, is found from central Kenya to north-east Tanzania.

T. e. versicolor is found in southeast South Sudan, northeast Uganda, southwest Ethiopia and north Kenya.