Trogon: Wikis




From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White-tailed Trogon, Trogon viridis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Infraclass: Neognathae
Order: Trogoniformes
AOU, 1886
Family: Trogonidae
Lesson, 1828








Evolution and taxonomy




Distribution and habitat





Morphology and flight






The calls of trogons are generally loud and uncomplex, consisting of monosyllabic hoots and whistles delivered in varying patterns and sequences.[2] The calls of the quetzals and the two Caribbean genera are the most complex. Amongst the Asian genera the Sumatran Trogon (Apalharpactes) has the most atypical call of any trogon, research has not yet established whether the closely related Javan Trogon has a similar call.[4] The calls of the other Asian genus, Harpactes, are remarkably uniform. In addition to the territorial and breeding calls given by males and females during the breeding seasons, trogons have been recorded as having aggression calls given by competing males and alarm calls.



Diet and feeding




A male Resplendent Quetzal entering its nest.

Trogons are territorial and monogamous. Males will respond quickly to playbacks of their calls and will repel other members of the same species and even other hole nesting species from around their nesting sites. Males attract females by singing,[2] and, in the case of the Resplendent Quetzal, undertaking display flights.[9] Some species have been observed in small flocks of 3–12 individuals prior to and sometimes during the breeding season, calling and chasing each other, but the function of these flocks is unclear.[10]

Trogons are cavity nesters. Nests are dug into rotting wood or termite nests,[2] with one species, the Violaceous Trogon, nesting in wasp nests.[8] Nest cavities can either be deep upward slanting tubes that lead to fully enclosed chambers, or much shallower open niches (from which the bird is visible). Nests are dug with the beak, incidentally giving the family its name. Nest digging may be undertaken by the male alone or by both sexes. In the case of nests dug into tree trunks, the wood must be strong enough not to collapse but soft enough to dig out. Trogons have been observed landing on dead tree trunks and slapping the wood with their tails, presumably to test the firmness.


Relationship with humans

Trogons and quetzals are considered to be "among the most beautiful of birds",[2] yet they are also often reclusive and seldom seen. Little is known about much of their biology, and much of what is known about them comes from the research of neotropical species by the ornithologist Alexander Skutch. Trogons are nevertheless popular birds with birdwatchers, and there is a modest ecotourism industry in particular to view quetzals in Central America.[2]

Species list









Phylogeny of Genera based on Moyle (2005)[11]


  1. ^ Johansson, Ulf S. & Ericson, Per G. P. (2003): Molecular support for a sister group relationship between Pici and Galbulae (Piciformes sensu Wetmore 1960). Journal of Avian Biology 34: 185–197. PDF fulltext
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Collar, N.J. (2001). "Family Trogonidae (Trogons)", pp. 80-129 in del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors). (2001) Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 6 Mousebirds to Hornbills.. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. ISBN 848733430X
  4. ^ a b Collar, N. & Van Ballen, S. (2002). "The Blue-tailed Trogon Harpactes (Apalharpactes) reinwardtii: species limits and conservation status" Forktail 18 121-125
  5. ^ Dacosta, J & Klicka, J. (2008). "The Great American Interchange in birds: a phylogenetic perspective with the genus Trogon". Molecular Ecology 17 1328–1343 doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03647.x
  6. ^ Wheelwright N.T. (1983) "Fruits and the Ecology of Resplendent Quetzals" Auk 100 (2): 286-301
  7. ^ Remsen Jr., J.V.; Hyde, M.A.; & A. Chapman (1993) "The Diets of Neotropical Trogons, Motmots, Barbets and Toucans". Condor 95 (1): 178-192
  8. ^ a b Windsor, D.M. (1976) "Birds as Predators on the Brood of Polybia Wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae) in a Costa Rican Deciduous Forest". Biotropica 8 (2) 111-116
  9. ^ Skutch A.F. (1944) "Life History of the Quetzal" Condor 46 (5): 213-235
  11. ^ Moyle, Robert G. (2005). "Phylogeny and biogeographical history of Trogoniformes, a pantropical bird order". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 84: 725–727. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00435.x.  

External links

1911 encyclopedia

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From LoveToKnow 1911

TROGON, a word apparently first used as English 1 by G. Shaw (Mus. Leverianum, p. 177) in 1792, and now for many years accepted as the general name of certain birds forming the family Trogonidae of modern ornithology. The trogons are birds of moderate size: the smallest is hardly bigger than a thrush and the largest less bulky than a crow. In most of them the bill is very wide at the gape, which is invariably beset by recurved bristles. They seize most of their food, whether caterpillars or fruits, on the wing, though their alar power is not exceptionally great, their flight being described as short, rapid and spasmodic. Their feet are weak and of a unique structure, the second toe, which in most birds is the inner anterior one, being reverted, and thus the trogons stand alone, since in all other birds that have two toes before and two behind it is the outer toe that is turned backward. The plumage is very remarkable and characteristic. There is not a species which has not beauty beyond most birds, and the glory of the group culminates in the quezal. But in others golden green and steely blue, rich crimson 2 and tender pink, yellow varying from primrose to amber, vie with one another in vivid coloration, or contrasted, as happens in many species, with a warm tawny or a sombre slaty grey - to say nothing of the delicate freckling of black and white, as minute as the markings of a moth's wing - the whole set off by bands of white, producing an effect hardly equalled in any group. The plumage is further remarkable for the large size of its contour-feathers, which are extremely soft and so loosely seated as to come off in scores at a touch, and there is no down. The tail is generally a very characteristic feature, the rectrices, though in some cases pointed, being often curiously squared at the tip, and when this is the case they are usually 1 Trogonem (the oblique case) occurs in Pliny (H. N. x. 16) as the name of a bird of which he knew nothing, save that it was mentioned by Hylas, an augur, whose work is lost; but some would read Trygonem (turtle-dove). In 1752 MOhring (Av. Genera, p. 85) applied the name to the "Curucui" (pronounced "Suruqua," vide Bates, Nat. Amazons, i. 254) of Marcgrav (Hist. nat. Brasiliae, p. 211), who described and figured it in 1648 recognizably. In 1760 Brisson (Ornithologie, iv. 164) adopted Trogon as a generic term, and, Linnaeus having followed his example, it has since been universally accepted.

Anatole Bogdanoff determined the red pigment of the feathers of Pharomacrus auriceps to be a substance which he called "zooxanthine" (Comptes rendus, Nov. 2, 1857, xlv. 690).

barred ladder-like with white and black.' According to J. Gould, they are larger and more pointed in the young than in the old, and grow squarer and have the white bands narrower at each succeeding moult. He also asserts that in the species which have the wing coverts freckled, the freckling becomes finer with age. So far as has been observed, the nidification of these birds is in holes of trees, wherein are laid without any bedding two roundish eggs, generally white, but certainly in one species (quezal) tinted with bluish green.

The trogons form a very well-marked family, belonging to the coraciiform birds, and probably to be placed in that assemblage near the colies (see Mouse Bird) and swifts (q.v.). The remains of one, T. gallicus, have been recognized by A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. de la France, ii. 395, pl. 177, figs. 18 -22) from the Miocene of the Allier. This fortunate discovery seems to account for the remarkable distribution of the trogons at the present day. While they chiefly abound, and have developed their climax of magnificence, in the tropical parts of the New World, they yet occur in the tropical parts of the Old. The species now inhabiting Africa, forming the group Hapaloderma, can hardly be separated generically from those of the Neotropical Trogon, and the difference between the Asiatic forms, if somewhat greater, is still comparatively slight. It is plain then that the Trogons are an exceptionally persistent type; indeed in the whole class few similar instances occur, and perhaps none that can be called parallel. The extreme development of the type in the New World just noticed also furnishes another hint. While in some of the American trogons (Pharomacrus, for instance) the plumage of the females is not very much less beautiful than that of the males, there are others in which the hen birds retain what may be fairly deemed a more ancient livery, while the cocks flaunt in brilliant attire. Now the plumage of both sexes in all but one 4 of the Asiatic trogons, Harpactes, resembles rather that of the young and of those females of the American species which are modestly clothed. The inference from this fact would seem to be that the general coloration of the Trogons prior to the establishment, by geographical estrangement, of the two types was a russet similar to that now worn by the adults of both sexes in the Indian region, and by a portion only of the females in the Neotropical. The Ethiopian type, as already said, very closely agrees with the American, and therefore would be likely to have been longer in connexion therewith. Again, while the adults of most of the American trogons (Pharomacrus and Euptilotis excepted) have the edges of the bill serrated, their young have them smooth or only with a single notch on either side near the tip, and this is observable in the Asiatic trogons at all ages. At the same time the most distinctive features of the whole group, which are easily taken in at a glance, but are difficult to express briefly in words, are equally possessed by both branches of the family, showing that they were in all likelihood - for the possibility that the peculiarities may have been evolved apart is not to be overlooked - reached before the geographical sundering of these branches (whereby they are now placed on opposite sides of the globe) was effected.

About sixty species of trogons are recognized, which J. Gould in the second edition of his Monograph of the family (1875) divides into seven genera. Pharomacrus, Euptilotis and Trogon inhabit the mainland of tropical America, no species passing to the northward of the Rio Grande nor southward of the forest district of Brazil, while none occur on the west coast of Peru or Chile. Prionotelus and Tmetotrogon, each with one species, are peculiar respectively to Cuba and Haiti. The African form Hapaloderma has two species, one found only on the west coast, the other of more general range. The Asiatic trogons, Harpactes (with eleven species according to the same authority), occur from Nepal to Malacca, in Ceylon, and in Sumatra, Java and Borneo, while one species is peculiar to some of the Philippine Islands. (A. N.)

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Up to date as of January 23, 2010

From Wikispecies


Main Page
Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Trogoniformes
Familia: Trogonidae
Genus: Trogon
Species: T. aurantiiventris - T. bairdii - T. citreolus - T. clathratus - T. collaris - T. comptus - T. curucui - T. elegans - T. massena - T. melanocephalus - T. melanurus - T. mexicanus - T. personatus - T. rufus - T. surrucura - T. violaceus - T. viridis


Trogon Brisson, 1760


Ornithologie 1 p.42 4 p.164


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