All species › Trogons
Trogons | Trogoniformes
Trogonachtigen | Trogones
Birds of closed forest with a compact body, a large head on a short neck and a long, straight-hanging tail whose outer feathers are broad and squared off at the tip. The bill is short and wide with a large gape and finely serrated cutting edges, surrounded by bristles. The foot is heterodactyl: the first and second toes point backwards and the third and fourth forwards, an arrangement found in no other group of birds; the legs are small and weak and serve only for sitting upright and still. Insects, caterpillars and small fruits are plucked from leaf or twig in short, fast flights while hovering. Nesting is in a cavity gnawed out by the bird in rotten wood or in an old woodpecker hole. The order has a single family with a tropical distribution in the Americas, Africa and Asia; in the region two endemic species live on Cuba and Hispaniola and three species on Trinidad and Tobago.
Families in this order
- Trogons | Trogonidae5 speciesFive species of trogon live in the region. Two are endemic: Cuban Trogon, in red, white and blue the national bird of Cuba, and Hispaniolan Trogon. Trinidad and Tobago hold three species of the genus Trogon, of which Collared Trogon also occurs on Tobago. The body is compact, the head large and the neck short, and the bird sits upright and all but motionless for long periods on a branch in the forest, turning only its head; it is therefore often the series of hollow notes rather than the bird itself that betrays its presence. The bill is short and wide with a large gape and finely serrated cutting edges. In the Trogon species the male is metallic green or blue on head, breast and back; the sheen comes from the structure of the feather rather than from pigment. The nest is a cavity in rotten wood, a termite nest or an old woodpecker hole.