About Trogon caligatus Gould, 1838
Most trogon species have distinctive plumage between males and females, with soft, often colorful feathers. The gartered trogon (Trogon caligatus Gould, 1838) is 23 to 25 cm (9.1 to 9.8 in) long and weighs 38 to 57 g (1.3 to 2.0 oz). For the nominate subspecies, the male's head, neck, and upper breast are violet-blue. Its face and throat are black, with a pale yellow ring around the eye. A narrow white band separates the upper breast from the bright yellow lower breast and belly. Its upperparts are metallic green. The upperside of the tail is violet-blue with black feather tips; the underside has fine black and white bars and broad white feather tips. The wings are mostly black with some whitish markings. The female's head, face, upper breast, and upperparts are gray; her eyering is not complete, her belly is a duller yellow than the male's, and the underside of her tail has a different black and white pattern. Subspecies T. c. sallaei has a blackish head and upper breast, and a blue nape and lower breast. Its upperparts are a yellower green than those of the nominate subspecies, and the upperside of its tail is green. Subspecies T. c. concinnus is similar to T. c. sallaei, but its upperparts and tail are bluer. T. c. sallaei is the northernmost subspecies of gartered trogon. It occurs on the Caribbean slope of central Mexico, and from the Caribbean and Pacific slopes of southern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador into northern Honduras, and possibly into Nicaragua. T. c. concinnus is found from Costa Rica through most of Panama into western Colombia, and also in a separate range from western Ecuador into northwestern Peru. The nominate T. c. caligatus is found from the Caribbean slope of Panama's Darién Province through northern Colombia into western Venezuela. The gartered trogon is a year-round resident in Mexico, but any movements it makes in other parts of its range are unknown. The gartered trogon generally inhabits semi-open landscapes, including forest edges, clearings, gallery forest, secondary forest, and shaded coffee and cacao plantations. In Mexico, it is also found in denser evergreen forest and rainforest. In elevation, it ranges as high as 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Central America, but is generally more common in lowlands.
