This barbet is endemic to southern China. It lives in evergreen broadleaf and mixed conifer-broadleaf forests in middle and lower mountains, and also occurs at forest edges and in more open woodland.
The body is green. The head has a black eyebrow, blue cheek, and yellow throat, with red spots on the sides of the neck. The account says juveniles are darker than adults.
It uses evergreen broadleaf and mixed forests in middle and lower mountains, and is also recorded in open woodland and forest edges. The account places subspecies sini on the southeastern mainland and faber on Hainan Island.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.