Black-girdled Barbet primarily forages in the forest canopy. Zimmer et al. (1997) observed barbets at heights of 4-30 m, but most frequently encountered them at 15-25 m above the ground. This barbet searches dead leaves, especially of Cecropia, and also forages from live vegetation (Zimmer et al. 1997).

No information.

Very little information. Whitney (in Short and Horne 2001) described the behavior of singing Black-girdled Barbets: "singer in exaggeratedly erect posture, tail pointing down, head horizontal but bill pointing somewhat downward ... breast feathers, including narrow-tippoed ones, and those of throat erected. The wings do not move".

Black-girdled Barbet forages in pairs or in small (family?) groups of four to six individuals, which "most often [are] seen in the company of large mixed-species canopy flocks of foliage-gleaners, tanagers, and dacnises", but also forage independently of other species (Zimmer et al. 1997).