Northern Emerald-Toucanet

About the Northern Emerald-Toucanet

The northern emerald toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus) also called the Wagler’s toucanet, is a species of bird in the toucan family Ramphastidae. It occurs in montane regions from southern Mexico to southern Panama. The northern emerald toucanet was formally described and illustrated in 1833 by the English ornithologist John Gould. He coined the binomial name Pteroglossus prasinus and specified the locality as Mexico. The specific epithet prasinus is Latin meaning "leek-green", from Ancient Greek πρασον/prason meaning "leek". The northern emerald toucanet is now one of eight toucanets placed in the genus Aulacorhynchus that was introduced in 1835 by Gould.

For many years the northern emerald toucanet was considered to have 14 subspecies. In 2008 the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) divided the subspecies into five species based on differences in morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequences. The species were the emerald toucanet (A. prasinus) with four subspecies, the blue-throated toucanet (A. caeruleogularis) with two subspecies, the white-throated toucanet (A. albivitta) with four subspecies, the black-throated toucanet (A. atrogularis) with three subspecies... Wikipedia →