Red-naped Trogon

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, a British military and naturalist (1781-1826), discovered the Red-naped Trogon in 1822, but if the character is interesting to us for his ornithological discovery, he is mostly known for founding Singapore in 1817. It should be noted that the scientific name of our Red-naped Trogon is Harpactes kasumba and, surprisingly, it adopts the Malay name of the trogon, which is kesumba. A large trogon (32 to 34 cm) with a distinct dimorphism, the forehead, crown, throat and chest are black, the bill is blue-cobalt with a black tip and is surrounded by very conspicuous black bristles; the large orbital circle is also blue-cobalt and surrounds the dark brown iris. The bird has a band of red feathers extending from its bill that encircles the neck and is unmistakable, the black chest being separated from the bright red abdominal area by a fine white band. The mantle, scapulars and back are ochre-yellow and the rump becomes brownish-red, as do the upper tail coverts, the black coverts are vermiculated with thin horizontal white waves and the black flight feathers show white margins. The central rectrices are brownish-red barred with black at the tip, the outer rectrices are white with a black base and show two black points directed downwards in the middle. The female is dressed in a brown-gray on the forehead, crown, nape and entire chest, the blue bill still has a black tip and a large blue orbital circle encircles the brown iris. A white band separates the chest from the yellow belly, the mantle, scapulars and back are brown, the rump and upper tail coverts becoming brownish-red. The dark brown coverts are vermiculated with yellow-ochre horizontal waves, the flight feathers are also dark brown and marked with white at the margins. The tarsi are blue-gray.Juveniles look like their mother, with a chest and belly tawny with white spots. Young males will start to have black on the throat and their stomach will show red patches. Two subspecies are recognized, ssp kasumba which gives its name to the species and ssp impavidus, similar to the nominal species but smaller, the female showing more grey on the throat. The two subspecies are poorly differentiated and hybridization may have or may have occurred in the past.