B. d. duchailllui (Cassin, 1856) (eastern yellow-spotted barbet) - eastern and central Africa, west to Nigeria
B. d. dowsetti Boesman & Collar, 2019 (western yellow-spotted barbet) - Sierra Leone to Togo
The western subspecies was described in 2019 as a distinct species based on its unique song. The western yellow-spotted barbet has a song described by Nigel James Collar and Peter Boesman as "a series of 7–10 accelerating notes similar to a song of hairy-breasted barbet (Tricholaema hirsuta)" (phoneticized as "oop"), while the eastern yellow-spotted barbet has a song described by Collar and Boesman as a "characteristic purring (lasting 1–2 seconds), unique among [African] barbets" (phoneticized as "rrurrrrrr…"). These song differences led to the description of B. dowsetti as a distinct species.[4][5] In 2023, the International Ornithological Congress recognized dowsetti as a distinct taxon, but tentatively kept it as a subspecies of duchailllui due to other studies finding significant divergences elsewhere within the species' range, indicating that B. duchaillui as a whole may represent a species complex.[3]