''Apalharpactes'' is a genus of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s in the family

Trogonidae The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 49 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early ...

. They are restricted to humid highland forest on the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n islands of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

and

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

. Unlike all other Asian trogons, their

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

is mainly green above and yellow below. Compared to most

trogon The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 49 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Ear ...

s, the

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

is relatively small. The two species in the genus resemble each other, but ''A. reinwardtii'' is larger than ''A. mackloti'', and the male ''A. mackloti'' has a chestnut rump-patch, which ''A. reinwardtii'' lacks. They feed on

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s, small lizards and fruit.

Taxonomy

The members of ''Apalharpactes'' are sometimes placed in the genus ''

Harpactes ''Harpactes'' is a genus of birds in the family Trogonidae 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 brown ...

'' instead. However a 2010 study found that the two genera are actually distantly related and thus valid. The two species of ''Apalharpactes'' were formerly treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

under the name red-billed trogon or blue-tailed trogon (''Apalharpactes reinwardtii'', with ''mackloti'' as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

), but are better treated as separate species.

References

* Allen, R. (2001). Genus ''Apalharpactes''. Pp. 106 in: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, & J. Sargatal. eds. (2001). ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

''. Vol. 6. Mousebirds to Hornbills. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Bird genera Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Trogoniformes-stub