Trogons | Trogonidae

Trogons | Trogons | Trogones

Eighteen species in two genera occur in this guide: the trogons and the quetzals. They live in almost every forest type, from the dry forest of the Tumbesian region and the wet lowland forest of the Chocó and the Amazonian foothills to the cloud forest of the Andean slopes, where the quetzals are most numerous. The body is compact, the head large and the neck short, and the bird sits upright and almost motionless for long periods on a branch in the mid-storey, turning only its head; often it is the series of hollow or barking calls that first betrays its presence. Insects and fruit are plucked from leaf or twig in a short fluttering sally. In the males head, breast and back are metallic green or blue-violet and the belly red or yellow; the sheen comes from the feather structure rather than pigment. The pattern on the underside of the tail differs between species and is a key identification feature. In male quetzals the upper tail coverts are elongated and reach to or beyond the tip of the tail. The nest is a cavity gnawed out in rotten wood, an arboreal termite nest or a wasp nest, with two or three unmarked eggs.