The Ecuadorian trogon (''Trogon mesurus'') is a species 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 ...

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 ...

, the quetzals and trogons. It is found in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Taxonomy and systematics

What is now the Ecuadorian trogon went through several scientific name changes. The last before the current

binomial Binomial may refer to: In mathematics *Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms *Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials *Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition * ...

was ''Trogon melanurus mesurus'', a subspecies of

black-tailed trogon The black-tailed trogon (''Trogon melanurus'') is a species of bird in the family Trogonidae, the quetzals and trogons. It is found Panama and northern South America. Taxonomy and systematics The black-tailed trogon has three subspecies accor ...

. Genetic studies in the early 2000s determined, that it is a species in its own right. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021

Description

The Ecuadorian trogon is long. One male weighed and a female . The male has a black face and throat with a red ring around the eye. The crown, nape, upperparts, and upper breast are iridescent green. A white band separates the upper breast from the deep red lower breast, belly, and vent. The upperside of the tail is green, and the underside is slaty gray. The folded wing has fine black and grayish white

vermiculation Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm casts, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of contexts for ...

. The female replaces the male's green parts with shades of gray.

Distribution and habitat

The Ecuadorian trogon is found from Ecuador's most northerly province, Esmeraldas, south into Peru's Lambayeque Province. It inhabits the edges and interior of humid

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

and

semideciduous Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical woody s ...

forest. In Ecuador, it ranges in elevation from sea level to about and in Peru it occurs between .

Behavior

Feeding

The feeding behavior and diet of the Ecuadorian trogon have not been studied. It is assumed to sally from a perch to pluck fruit or

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 from vegetation in the same manner as other trogons.

Breeding

The only described nests of the Ecuadorian trogon were cavities excavated in active arboreal

termitaria Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...

. The clutch size was three eggs. Both sexes incubated the eggs.

Vocalization

The Ecuadorian trogon's song is "a slow, short series of ''cow'' notes that often starts slowly and builds in strength, e.g., ''cuh-cuh-cuh-cuh-cow-cow-ców-ców-ców''." Both sexes make a call of "a rapid series of churring notes: ''crra crra crra crra''."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the Ecuadorian trogon as being of The Least Concern. Though its population has not been quantified, it is believed to be stable. However, "As with other species that occupy forested habitats, heEcuadorian Trogon is vulnerable to habitat loss or degradation."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266271 Ecuadorian trogon Birds of Ecuador Birds of El Chocó Ecuadorian trogon, Ecuadorian trogon