Trogon is a genus of Coraciimorphae birds in the trogon family. Its members occur in forests and woodlands of the Americas, ranging from southeastern Arizona to northern Argentina.
They have large eyes, stout hooked bills, short wings, and long, squared-off, strongly graduated tails; black and white tail-feather markings form distinctive patterns on the underside. Males have richly colored metallic plumage, metallic on the upperparts. Although many have brightly coloured bare eye-rings, they lack the colorful patches of bare facial skin in their African counterparts, Apaloderma. Females and young are duller and sometimes hard to identify in the field. Eggs are white or bluish-white, unlike the pale blue eggs of quetzals. See the family account for further details.
Taxonomy The genus Trogon was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the green-backed trogon (Trogon viridis) as the type species. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek τρωγων trōgōn for "fruit-eating" or "gnawing". The name had previously been used by the German naturalist Paul Möhring in 1752 for the blue-crowned trogon (Trogon curucui).
The following cladogram shows the relationships between 21 of the species placed in the genus. It is based on a molecular phylogenetic study by Jeffrey Dacosta and John Klicka that was published in 2008. The cladogram incorporates the species splits that resulted from this study.
Certain plumage features map onto the phylogeny. In Clade A the females are brown-backed while in the other two clades females are gray-backed. The males in Clade A are all green-headed. In Clade B the males are green-headed and have mostly dark undertail patterns. In Clade C males are blue- or black-headed and have white or contrasting black-and-white undertail patterns. The belly color does not map onto the phylogeny. For example, in Clade C Baird's trogon is red-bellied while the white-tailed trogon is yellow-bellied. Similarly, the blue-crowned trogon is red-bellied while the Guianan trogon is yellow-bellied.
Species The 24 species now recognised in the genus are: Male Female Scientific name Common name Distribution Black-throated trogon or Yellow-bellied Trogon Trogon rufusHonduras south to western Ecuador and northern ArgentinaNorthern black-throated trogon or Graceful black-throated trogonTrogon tenellusnorthern Honduras to far northwestern Colombia Choco black-throated trogonTrogon cupreicaudatropical western Colombia and western EcuadorAtlantic black-throated trogonTrogon chrysochloroseast, south Brazil, Paraguay and northeast Argentina Elegant trogon Trogon elegans Guatemala in the south as far north as the upper Gila River in Arizona and New Mexico Coppery-tailed trogonTrogon ambiguussoutheast Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northwest Costa Rica Mountain trogon Trogon mexicanus Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico and has occurred in El Salvador Collared trogon Trogon collarisnorthern Colombia, northern Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago Masked trogon Trogon personatusthe Andes Lattice-tailed trogon Trogon clathratus Costa Rica and Panama Slaty-tailed trogon Trogon massenasoutheastern Mexico south through Central America, to Colombia, and a small region of northwestern Ecuador Ecuadorian trogon Trogon mesurus (split from T. melanurus)western Ecuador and far north-western Peru Chocó trogon Trogon comptus western Colombia and north-western Ecuador. Black-tailed trogon Trogon melanurusnorth-western South America and adjacent Panama Citreoline trogon Trogon citreoluswestern Mexico Black-headed trogon Trogon melanocephalus northern Colombia, northern Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago Green-backed trogon Trogon viridisthe Amazon, the Guiana Shield, Trinidad, and the Atlantic Forest in eastern Brazil Baird's trogon Trogon bairdii Costa Rica and far western Panama White-tailed trogon Trogon chionurus (split from T. viridis) Chocó, ranging from Panama, through western Colombia, to western Ecuador Gartered trogon Trogon caligatus (split from T. violaceus) east-central Mexico, south through Central America, to west or north of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela Amazonian trogon Trogon ramonianus (split from T. violaceus) the Amazon Surucua trogon Trogon surrucurasouth-eastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and far north-eastern Argentina and Uruguay Guianan trogon Trogon violaceusMexico, Central America, and northern South America Blue-crowned trogon Trogon curucui Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru
References
ca:Trogon