It has a total length of c. 20 cm (8 in). As other New World barbets, the gilded barbet is a thickset, relatively large-headed bird with a stubby bill. The upperparts, tail, wings and mask are mainly black. The spotty bar over the greater wing coverts, narrow edging to the remiges and tips to the tertials are yellow. Additionally, the narrow yellow eyebrows extends as two parallel lines over the mantle. The belly is mainly pale yellow with black streaking to the flanks. Depending on subspecies, the throat ranges from red to orange, and the crown ranges from deep yellow over brownish-orange to reddish-orange. The female resembles the male, but with extensive orange-yellow edging to the wing-coverts, yellowish streaking to the auriculars and back, and the black streaking of the flanks also extending over the chest. In females from the westernmost part of its range (subspecies punctatus ), the throat is streaked black. Both sexes have dark maroon irides, greyish legs and a broadly black-tipped grey bill.
It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, in the Orinoco River Basin and western Amazon Basin. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the black-spotted barbet from north-eastern South America. Its natural habitats are tropical moist lowland forests and woodland. It mainly occurs in lowlands, but also ranges into the lower foothills of the eastern Andes. It is largely frugivorous.
