Amazonian Black-throated Trogon - BirdForum Opus

Male, subspecies xxx
Photo by Gustavo Jimenez
Avila National Park, Venezuela, 2003

Trogon rufus

Identification

23–25 cm (9-9¾ in)
Male

• Head, and mantle coppery green
  • Throat and face black
• Rump bluish green to golden green
• Uppertail bluish green to olive-green or reddish-copper (somewhat depending on subspecies), with moderate black terminal band; no subterminal band in nominate, but present in other subspecies
• Breast blue-green to sometimes golden-green
• Belly yellow
  • White band separating yellow belly from breast is present in some nominate but mostly absent in the other subspecies
• Undertail barred black and white, 4.5-6 bars per cm
• Wing coverts black and white with about 10-13 bars per cm
• Bill yellow
• Eye-ring variable, mostly bluish grey to whitish in nominate, but significant numbers are yellow to yellowish green in the other subspecies

Female

• Head, upper breast and back brown sometimes with yellowish tones
• Uppertail Rufous-brown
• Yellow belly
• Undertail barred black and white with 3-5 bars per cm; black bars narrower than white
  • Undertail infused with brown mostly along edgings
• Bill mostly yellow
• Eye-ring variable like male

Distribution

South America east of the Andes: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, northern Bolivia, and Brazil

Taxonomy

Black-throated Trogon was in 2024 split into four species:

• Northern Black-throated Trogon - Tropical south-eastern Honduras to extreme north-western Colombia
• Choco Black-throated Trogon - Tropical western Colombia and western Ecuador
• Amazonian Black-throated Trogon - Amazonian South America from eastern Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to Amazonian Venezuela and the Guianas, as well as to Amazonian Brazil
• Atlantic Black-throated Trogon - northeastern Brazil to Paraguay and northeastern Argentina

Subspecies

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

• T. r. rufus:

• Eastern Venezuela to the Guianas and northern Brazil (Rio Negro region)

• T. r. amazonicus:

• Southern Venezuela and north-eastern Brazil

• T. r. sulphureus:

• Eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, north-eastern Peru, southern Venezuela and western Brazil

Habitat

Lowland humid neotropical forest.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists of arthropods and fruit.

Breeding

The nest is an unlined shallow cavity, and 2 white eggs are laid.

Vocalisation

Call: krrrrrr
Song: cuh cuh cuh cuh

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
3. Avibase
4. van Dort, J. and P. Pyle (2023). Amazonian Black-throated Trogon (Trogon rufus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg and M. A. Bridwell, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bkttro6.01
5. Birdforum thread with report of yellow eye-ring in Black-throated Trogon
6. Paper discussing the taxonomy of the former members of Black-throated Trogon

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Amazonian Black-throated Trogon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 15 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Amazonian_Black-throated_Trogon

External Links

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