The lattice-tailed trogon (''Trogon clathratus'') 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 lightweigh ...
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 ...
, the quetzals and trogons. It is found in
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
and
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The lattice-tailed trogon 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 "unispec ...
.
[
]
Description
The lattice-tailed trogon is about long and weighs about . The male has a yellow bill, a whitish eye, and a blackish face, chin, and throat. The crown, nape, upperparts, and breast are iridescent green. The belly and vent are rosy red. The folded wing has fine black and white vermiculation
Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin ''vermiculus'' 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 ...
that looks gray at a distance. The upperside of the tail is bluish green and underside slate gray with fine white bars. The female replaces the male's green with slaty gray, with an olive tint to the breast. The female's maxilla
The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...
is dark.[Collar, N. (2020). Lattice-tailed Trogon (''Trogon clathratus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.lattro1.01 retrieved October 27, 2021]
Distribution and habitat
The lattice-tailed trogon is found along the Caribbean slope for the length of Costa Rica and into western Panama; it is also found locally on the Pacific slope in Panama. It inhabits the midstory and lower canopy of mature humid to wet foothill and lower mountain forest. It is usually found in the forest interior but also at the edges and into shady semi-open landscapes. In elevation it ranges between . It descends to the lower elevations towards the end of the rainy season, but is almost never found in the level lowlands.[
]
Behavior
Feeding
The lattice-tailed trogon's diet is mostly fruits and large insects but also occasionally includes small frogs and lizards.[
]
Breeding
The lattice-tailed trogon's breeding season extends from February to May. It nests in a cavity excavated in a rotten tree or snag and sometimes an arboreal termitarium
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattod ...
, usually between above ground.[
]
Vocalization
The lattice-tailed trogon's song is a "rapid series of c.15 loud, resonant clucking 'kwa' notes rising in pitch and volume to a crescendo in hemiddle, then becoming faster, lower and softer".[
]
Status
The IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...
has assessed the lattice-tailed trogon as being of Least Concern, though it has a restricted range and its unquantified population is believed to be decreasing.[ "Habitat destruction within its range snow extensive, however, and careful evaluation of status needed."][
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1260446
lattice-tailed trogon
Birds of Costa Rica
Birds of Panama
lattice-tailed trogon
lattice-tailed trogon
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot