[5][6] The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World acknowledges that the "Sira" form is significantly different from the nominate and suggests that it be accorded species rank.

[7] The bird's epithet commemorates John W. Fitzpatrick, an expert for the Peruan avifauna and director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

It has a band of white, fairly wide at the shoulders tapering to the tail; the rest of the upperparts are black.

A broad crimson band crosses the chest and extends along the flanks where it meets a variable amount of black or gray.

[2] Its range is sympatric and syntopic with that of the gilded barbet, and coincides with the boundary and sections of the Sira Communal Reserve.

[2] It primarily inhabits the highest stratum of tall (up to 30 m (98 ft)) montane forest with arboreal epiphytes and moss above a sparsely vegetated understory.