Trogons | Trogoniformes

Trogonachtigen | Trogones

Trogons are compactly built forest birds with a large head on a short neck, big eyes and a short, broad bill with a wide gape, ringed at the base by stiff bristles. The toes are arranged as in no other bird: the first two point backwards and the other two forwards. The legs are short and weak, so walking and climbing hardly occur. The skin is strikingly thin and the feathers sit loosely, coming away at the slightest grip. The male is metallic green on the back and breast and sharply demarcated red or yellow on the belly, the female duller brown or grey; the long, square-cut tail has boldly black-and-white patterned outer feathers. For hours on end they sit upright and motionless on a branch, turning only the head.

Families in this order

Trogons | Trogonidae2 speciesFrom a fixed perch the foliage is scanned; as soon as a large grasshopper, caterpillar or mantis is spotted, a short fluttering flight follows in which the prey is plucked from leaf or twig on the wing, after which the bird returns to the same or a neighbouring branch. Large prey is beaten against the perch before being swallowed. Fruit is taken the same way, snatched in flight and swallowed whole; the stones pass out undigested later, so the birds scatter seeds through the forest. The nest is a cavity in a dead trunk or a thick, rotting limb, gnawed out with the bill or taken over from a woodpecker, and is left unlined; both parents incubate in turn and feed the naked chicks. The voice is a series of low, hoarse, evenly repeated notes, soft and muffled close by but carrying far through the forest and hard to place; when disturbed the bird gives a sharp rattle and jerks its tail up and down.