Trogon collaris Vieillot, 1817

Taxonomy and Common Name

Trogon collaris Vieillot, 1817, commonly called the collared trogon, is a member of the trogon family, a group in which males and females have distinctively different plumages, with soft, often colorful feathers.

Size Measurements

The collared trogon measures about 25 to 29 cm (9.8 to 11.4 in) in length and weighs approximately 41 to 64 g (1.4 to 2.3 oz).

Shared Plumage Features

Both sexes share a black face and throat.

Male Upperbody Plumage

Males have bright metallic green plumage on the crown, nape, back, and rump; their folded wings show black and white vermiculation.

Male Underbody Plumage

The male's breast is also metallic green, with a white band that separates it from the bright red belly and vent.

Male Tail Plumage

The upperside of the male's tail is green with a black tip, while the underside is barred black and white.

Female Plumage

In areas where the male is green, the female has olive brown plumage; the female's closed wing is brown with black vermiculation, and her belly is a duller red than the male's.

Female Tail Plumage

The underside of the female's tail is gray with a few black bars and white tips.

Subspecies Distributions

There are 10 recognized subspecies of collared trogon, with the following distributions: T. c. puella is found from central Mexico to western Panama; T. c. underwoodi is found in northwestern Costa Rica; T. c. aurantiiventris is found from central Costa Rica to western Panama; T. c. extimus is found in eastern Darién Province in northeastern Panama; T. c. heothinus is found in Panama's Serranía del Darién; T. c. virginalis is found from western Colombia through western Ecuador into northwestern Peru; T. c. subtropicalis is found in central Colombia, especially the Magdalena and Cauca valleys; T. c. exoptatus is found in northern Venezuela, with an uncertain presence in Trinidad & Tobago; T. c. collaris is found east of the Andes from Colombia south to northern Bolivia, and east through the Guianas and much of west central Brazil, with an uncertain presence in Trinidad & Tobago; T. c. castaneus is found from southeastern Colombia south to eastern Peru and northern Bolivia and into northwestern Brazil, and also in eastern Brazil.

Taxonomic Disagreement

Taxonomic authorities disagree on which subspecies occurs in Trinidad & Tobago: Clements places T. c. exoptatus there, while the IOC places T. c. collaris there instead.

South American Habitat

In South America, the collared trogon lives in humid lowland evergreen forest, including both primary forest and well-established secondary forest.

Central American Habitat

In Mexico and Central America, it inhabits these same forest types, and also lives in humid montane forest, semideciduous forest, and pine-evergreen forest.

Elevation Range

It occurs at elevations up to 2,400 m (7,870 ft) in Mexico and up to 2,300 m (7,550 ft) in Costa Rica, but in the Andes it is found mostly below 1,300 m (4,270 ft) in Ecuador and below 1,200 m (3,940 ft) in Peru.