Harpactes

Harpactes
Malabar trogon, Harpactes fasciatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Trogoniformes
Family: Trogonidae
Genus: Harpactes
Swainson, 1833
Synonyms

Duvaucelius

Harpactes is a genus of birds in the Trogonidae family found in forests in South and Southeast Asia, extending into southernmost China. They are strongly sexually dimorphic, with females generally being duller than males. Their back is brownish, the tail is partially white (best visible from below), and males of most species have red underparts. They feed on arthropods, small lizards and fruit.

Two species, cinnamon-rumped and scarlet-rumped trogons, were previously classified in a separate genus, Duvaucelius, and a 2010 study found that these two were closely related and formed a separate clade from all of the other Harpactes trogons (except orange-breasted trogon, which forms a third group), but recommended that all three groups should be treated as congeneric.[1] This same study also found that the genus Apalharpactes, containing two species sometimes included in Harpactes, is actually distantly related and thus a valid genus.

Species

References

  1. ↑ Peter A. Hosner, Frederick H. Sheldon, Haw Chuan Lim, Robert G. Moyle (2010) Phylogeny and biogeography of the Asian trogons (Aves: Trogoniformes) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Volume 57, Issue 3, December 2010, Pages 1219–1225