Gartered Trogon
| Gartered Trogon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| male | |
 | |
| female | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Trogoniformes |
| Family: | Trogonidae |
| Genus: | Trogon |
| Species: | T. caligatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Trogon caligatus Gould, 1838 | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
|
Trogon violaceus caligatus | |
The Gartered Trogon (Trogon caligatus), also known as the Northern Violaceous Trogon, is a near passerine bird in the trogon family, Trogonidae. It is found in forests in east-central Mexico, south through Central America, to north-western South America (west or north of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela).[3] It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the otherwise exclusively South American Violaceous Trogon (T. violaceus).[2][4]
Behavior
It nests in a wasp, ant or termite nest or a hole in a rotten tree, with a typical clutch of two or three white eggs.
Violaceous Trogons feed on insects and small fruit, and their broad bills and weak legs reflect their diet and arboreal habits. Although their flight is fast, they are reluctant to fly any distance. They typically perch upright and motionless.
Description
Most trogons have distinctive male and female plumages, with soft, often colourful, feathers. The Gartered Trogon is a relatively small species at about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in length.[5] The head and upper breast of the male are blue and the back is green, becoming bluer on the rump. A faint white line separates the breast from the orange-yellow underparts. The undertail is white with black barring, and the wings are black, vermiculated with white. The complete eye-ring is yellow.[5] The female Violaceous Trogon resembles the male, but has a dark grey back, head and breast, and an incomplete white eye-ring.[5]
The shade of the blue of the head in the male differs between the Violaceous Trogon and the Gartered Trogon, but (disregarding their separate distributions) the voice is the main distinction between the two.[5] The Gartered has a slurred whistled cuh-cuh-cuh, and Violaceous has a soft cow cow, cow.
References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Trogon caligatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Trogon caligatus on Avibase
- ↑ Restall, R. L., Rodner, C., & Lentino, M. (2006). Birds of Northern South America. Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-7243-9 (vol. 1). ISBN 0-7136-7242-0 (vol. 2).
- ↑ South American Classification Committee (2008). Recognize Trogon caligatus as a separate species from Trogon violaceus
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ridgely, R. S., & Greenfield, P. J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador – Field Guide. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801487217.