The Guianan trogon (Trogon violaceus), is a species of bird in the trogon and quetzal family Trogonidae. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Guianan trogon was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other trogons in the genus Trogon and coined the binomial name Trogon violaceus. Gmelin based his account on a description and illustration by the German botanist Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter that had been published 1765. Gmelin did not specify a type locality, but this has been designated as Suriname. The specific epithet violaceus is from Latin and means "violet-coloured". The species is now considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The Guianan trogon was formerly named the violaceous trogon and included the gartered trogon (T. caligatus) and the Amazonian trogon (T. ramonianus) as subspecies. A molecular phylogenetic study of the genus Trogon based on a single mitochondrial gene was published in 2008. It found that the Guianan trogon, the blue-crowned trogon (T. curucui) and the Surucua trogon (T. surrucura) formed a well defined clade but the three Guianan trogon subspecies did not form a monophyletic group.
The Guianan trogon is treated as a monotypic species by the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats it as the nominate subspecies of violaceous trogon. HBW also includes five other subspecies that the SACC, IOC, and Clements treat as members of two full species, gartered trogon (T. caligatus) and Amazonian trogon (T. ramonianus). The SACC notes that the split into three species might deserve reevaluation.
The Guinan trogon's song is "a long series of rapid hollow downslurred whistles, kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu". Its calls include "rolling chattering." The species is "[r]are and local in Venezuela, but common in Trinidad and Suriname."