Ward's trogon (''Harpactes wardi'') is a species of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
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 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...
. Its range includes the northeastern parts of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
stretching eastwards to
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
. It is found in
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
, and
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. It also has a disjunct population in northern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, but there are no recent records from there. Its natural
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s are temperate
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
s and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by
habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
.
Its common name and Latin binomial commemorate the English botanist and explorer
Francis Kingdon-Ward.
Description
Ward's trogon measures in length and weighs . The male have a pink-red breast, belly, undertail and forehead and the chest, back and wings and uppertail are dark slate with a maroon wash. The tip of the bill is deep red. The plumage of the female matches the male but the red is replaced with yellow and the dark parts are dark olive. The female's beak tip is yellow, and both sexes have a blue ring around the eye.
Distribution and habitat
Ward's trogon ranges from Bhutan and
Arunachal
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
in North Eastern India and into northern and eastern Myanmar and southern China (in western
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...
). A disjunct population was reported to be common in
Fan Si Pan in Vietnam in 1939, but there are no modern records of that species there. The species is generally montane, usually occurring between but occasionally coming down as low as . There is some evidence that it moves to lower altitudes in winter.
The preferred habitat of Ward's trogon is subtropical hill forest dominated by ''
Quercus
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ...
'' and ''
Castanopis'' and temperate broadleaf evergreen forest. Within these forests it is found in the
understory
In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abo ...
, undergrowth and within bamboo stands.
The species is not a common one, although it can be locally common in some locations. It was treated as vulnerable by the
IUCN in the 1990s, but secure populations have been found in Bhutan, so it is presently listed as near-threatened.
Behaviour
Little is known about the behaviour of Ward's trogon. It feeds on insects, including moths, stick-insects, grasshoppers and bugs, as well as large seeds. Its nests have not been found or described, but birds in breeding condition have been found in March and April.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1259010
Ward's trogon
Birds of Bhutan
Birds of Northeast India
Birds of Yunnan
Ward's trogon
Ward's trogon
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot