2025 split

Elegant Trogon split: Arizona's bird is now Coppery-tailed Trogon

In 2025 eBird split Elegant Trogon in two. The trogon of southeast Arizona and Mexico is now Coppery-tailed Trogon; Elegant Trogon is the Central American bird.

Updated

A Coppery-tailed Trogon with a glossy green head and back, a red belly and a long tail, perched among pink flowers
Coppery-tailed Trogon, painted for John Gould's book of trogons. John Gould, A Monograph of the Trogonidae (1858–75)

What changed

WasElegant Trogon Trogon elegans
NowCoppery-tailed Trogon Trogon ambiguus

The one trogon that regularly nests in the US, in the mountain canyons of southeast Arizona such as Madera Canyon. It also lives in Mexico.

NowElegant Trogon Trogon elegans

Central America, from Guatemala to Costa Rica.

Who decided, and when

  • AviList, the shared world checklist: agrees, with the same names
  • eBird and the Clements Checklist: its 2025 taxonomy update

Which one did you see?

Go by country. A trogon seen in Arizona or Mexico is Coppery-tailed Trogon. Only birds seen from Guatemala to Costa Rica are Elegant Trogon.

What it does to your list

For US birders it's a new name only: the Elegant Trogon you saw in Arizona is now Coppery-tailed Trogon.

If you have also seen Elegant Trogon in Central America, your total goes up by one.

Check your own list. Drop your eBird download or type your birds: the free checker shows which of them this and other recent changes touched.

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