The versicolored barbet was described by Statius Müller in 1776 as Bucco versicolor, based on a specimen collected in Maynas Province, Peru. Its taxonomy is in flux. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy treat it as one species with three subspecies. The HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World treats the three as individual species.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip [.xls zipped 1 MB] retrieved May 27, 2021
