[order] TROGONIFORMES | [family] Trogonidae | [latin] Trogon caligatus | [authority] Gould, 1838 | [UK] Gartered Trogon | [FR] Trogon pattu | [DE] | [ES] | [NL] Violette Trogon
Monotypic species
Genus
The Neotropical Trogoninae, containing four genera, Trogon, Priotelus, Pharomachrus and Eupilotis. The two Caribbean species of Priotelus were formerly different ones (Temnotrogon on Hispaniola), and are extremely ancient. The two quetzal genera, Pharomachrus and Eupilotis are possibly derived from the final and most numerous genus of trogons in the Neotropics, Trogon. A 2008 study of the genetics of Trogon suggested the genus originated in Central America and radiated into South America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama (as part of the Great American Interchange), thus making trogons relatively recent arrivals in South America. Within the genus Trogon, a division of species that coincides with female plumage type is well supported. Females with brown breasts and heads characterize one clade (including T. rufus), whereas females in the other clade (including T. comptus) have gray breasts and heads. Females of T. rufus and T. mexicanus both have brown heads. Male plumage does not appear to be informative at this level; species with red or yellow underparts are interspersed in both clades. 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.[1] Although many have brightly coloured bare eye-rings, they lack the colorful patches of bare facial skin in their African counterparts, Apaloderma.[2] Females and young are duller and sometimes hard to identify in the field
The Gartered Trogon is a relatively small species at about 23 centimeters in length. 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. The female Violaceous Trogon resembles the male, but has a dark grey back, head and breast, and an incomplete white eye-ring.
| wingspan min.: |
0 |
cm |
wingspan max.: |
0 |
cm |
| size min.: |
23 |
cm |
size max.: |
24 |
cm |
| incubation min.: |
0 |
days |
incubation max.: |
0 |
days |
| fledging min.: |
0 |
days |
fledging max.: |
0 |
days |
| broods: |
0 |
|
eggs min.: |
2 |
|
| |
|
|
eggs max.: |
3 |
|
Latin America : East Mexico to Northwest South America. 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). Resident in Mexico from San Luis Potosi, Puebla, Veracruz, and Oaxaca south along both slopes of Middle America (including the Yucatan Peninsula) to Panama and northern Colombia, east to northwestern Venezuela, and south to northwestern Peru.
Tropical Lowland Evergreen Forest, Secondary Forest, Tropical Deciduous Forest (0-800 m; Tropical and lower Subtropical zones).
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.
Insects, larvae, other small creatures & fruit.
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Formerly considered conspecific with T. violaceus Gmelin, ???? [Violaceous Trogon] but separated on the basis of differences in vocalizations and mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that T. caligatus and T. violaceus are not sister taxa.
Presumed sedentary
