[1] However, as of 2024 the North American Classification Committee of the AOS and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) have not recognized the split, retaining the six-subspecies black-throated trogon.

[5][6] The Atlantic black-throated trogon has two subspecies, the nominate T. c. chrysochloros (Pelzeln, 1856) and T. c. muriciensis (Dickens, Bitton, Bravo & Silviera, 2021).

[7] Like most trogons, the Atlantic black-throated has distinctive male and female plumages with soft colorful feathers.

Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a black forehead and face with a pale blue ring of bare skin around their eye.

Adult females have mostly olive to brownish upperparts; their crown is darker and their rump and uppertail coverts lighter.

Their face is olive to brownish with a whitish to pale blue ring of bare skin around their eye.

The upper side of their central pair of tail feathers is rufous-brown to bright copper with thin black tips and a faint cinnamon-buff band between them.

Immatures resemble the adults but are duller, and young males have a brown throat, breast, and wing coverts.

[7][8][9] "Trogons and quetzals perch erectly with tail hanging downward, and they may remain motionless and quiet for protracted periods.

[7] The Atlantic black-throated trogon feeds primarily on insects and also small amounts of fruit (11% and 38% of its diet in two studies).

[7][11][12][13][excessive citations] The Atlantic black-throated trogon's breeding season in the southern part of the nominate subspecies' range includes at least October and November.

Other details of the species' nesting biology are assumed to be similar to those of its formerly conspecific northern black-throated trogon, which see here.

[14] "If the Alagoas population is eventually awarded species status, [as originally proposed]], then urgent conservation measures likely will be needed to ensure its survival.