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| Selenidera piperivora | |
|---|---|
| Name | Green-backed Trogon |
| Status | LC |
| Status system | IUCN3.1 |
| Genus | Selenidera |
| Species | piperivora |
| Authority | (Gmelin, 1788) |
Selenidera piperivora is a Central and South American Neotropical realm bird species known by the common name Green-backed Trogon; it occupies lowland Amazon rainforest, Chocó-Darién and Atlantic Guianas regions and is notable for its sexual dimorphism, vocalizations, and role in frugivory and seed dispersal. Descriptions and range accounts for the species appear in treatments by institutions such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the American Ornithological Society, and museum collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the Natural History Museum, London, and the Field Museum of Natural History.
The species was described during the era of natural history exploration by Johann Friedrich Gmelin and later placed in the genus Selenidera within the family Trogonidae, a clade treated in molecular phylogenies by research groups at the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Subspecific limits have been debated in monographs and field guides from the British Ornithologists' Union, the Handbook of the Birds of the World, and regional checklists produced by the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee and the Asociación Colombiana de Ornitología. Phylogeographic studies using mitochondrial DNA and nuclear loci, published by laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of São Paulo, have examined relationships among Selenidera taxa and compared them to other trogon genera treated in works by the American Ornithologists' Union and the Royal Society.
Adults exhibit pronounced sexual dichromatism described in field guides from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the British Museum (Natural History). Males typically show a greenish back and head with iridescent plumage treated in plates by illustrators linked to the Linnaean Society and comparisons in volumes by John Gould and Joseph Smit. Females are characterized by more cryptic coloration illustrated in works from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and specimens cataloged at the American Museum of Natural History. Standard measurements, wing and bill metrics, and molt patterns are summarized in handbooks from the American Bird Conservancy, the International Ornithologists' Union, and the regional field guides published by Christopher Helm.
Selenidera piperivora occurs across lowland forests, riverine corridors, and edge habitats documented in surveys by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, the Panama Canal Authority region studies, and inventories led by the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International. Its range includes parts of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, and Ecuador as recorded in national red lists and atlases maintained by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística and the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. The species shows affinities for terra firme forest, várzea and gallery forest types mapped by researchers at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture and remote-sensing analyses from the European Space Agency.
Behavioral studies by field teams associated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, and university programs at the University of Oxford document territoriality, vocal communication, and mixed-species flock participation involving species recorded by the Neotropical Bird Club and the BirdLife International network. Vocal repertoires are described in sonograms archived at the Macaulay Library and the British Library Sound Archive, with songs used in mate attraction and territory defense reported in behavioral syntheses published by the Royal Society Open Science and the Journal of Avian Biology.
The species is primarily frugivorous with supplemental insectivory, feeding on fruits and arthropods observed in studies by teams from the Smithsonian Institution, the Universidade Federal do Pará, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Foraging behavior, including sallying and perch-and-wait tactics, has been compared to patterns documented for other Trogonidae members in analyses from the American Ornithological Society and ecological syntheses in journals affiliated with the Ecological Society of America and the Linnean Society of London. Seed dispersal roles have been evaluated in mutualism studies led by the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Breeding phenology, nest site selection in cavities, and clutch characteristics have been documented by field researchers working with the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (INRENA), the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, and university programs at the University of Cambridge. Data summarized in regional breeding atlases from the BirdLife International partnership and reproductive ecology papers in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology indicate biparental care and synchronous incubation schedules similar to congeners treated in monographs by the British Ornithologists' Club.
The species is currently assessed as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature but faces pressures from habitat loss, fragmentation, and deforestation reported in assessments by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and regional conservation organizations such as SOS Amazonia and ProAmazonia. Conservation actions recommended by NGOs including Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, and governmental agencies like Brazil's ICMBio emphasize protected area management, landscape-scale connectivity, and monitoring protocols developed with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention.