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Collared Trogon | Trogon collaris
Gekraagde trogon | Trogón de collar
The Collared Trogon is the only red-bellied trogon in Trinidad and Tobago, and the only trogon found on both islands. It is a widespread species from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil. It sits upright and motionless for long spells in the middle storey or below the canopy, and joins mixed flocks but keeps its distance from the other members.
Voice
A series of soft, mellow whistles, often with a stuttered first note, such as caow caow-caow. Also a drawn-out charr and a snorting churrrr.
Recording: Glauko Corrêa da Silva — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
25–29 cm. The male has a black face and throat, with crown, nape, back, rump and breast glossy metallic green. A white band separates the breast from the bright red belly. The folded wing is finely vermiculated black and white. The bill is yellow. The upper side of the tail is green with a black tip, the underside barred black and white with white tips. The female is olive-brown where the male is green, with a white breast band, a duller red belly, white around the eye and a greyish undertail with sparse black bars and white tips.
Confusion species
Trinidad's two other trogons, Green-backed Trogon Trogon viridis and Guianan Trogon Trogon violaceus, have yellow bellies and a blue or violet-blue head in the male and a grey head in the female; both are absent from Tobago. The brown, red-bellied female cannot be confused with anything on the islands.
Habitat
Humid forest and mature secondary forest in hills and mountains, from the middle storey up into the canopy; in Trinidad mainly in the higher parts of the Northern Range, in Tobago in the rainforest of the Main Ridge. It eats small fruit and large insects such as caterpillars, crickets, cicadas and beetles. It breeds from March to May in a shallow cavity in an arboreal termite nest or soft, rotting wood, often so shallow that the sitting bird remains partly visible.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In Trinidad a fairly common resident of the Northern Range; in Tobago in the forest of the Main Ridge. It does not occur on the other islands. Beyond the region from Mexico through Central America to northern South America, and east of the Andes to Bolivia and Brazil. Lists differ on which subspecies occurs in Trinidad and Tobago (Trogon collaris exoptatus or the nominate form).
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Trinidad along the Blanchisseuse Road and around the Asa Wright Nature Centre; in Tobago along Gilpin Trace and other trails in the Main Ridge Forest Reserve. The bird often sits still with its back to the observer; only when it turns do the white breast band and red belly appear.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a very large range and is fairly common in suitable forest in Trinidad and Tobago.
Scientific name
Trogon collaris | Vieillot, 1817
Vieillot described the species in 1817 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Trogon was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Trogon is Greek, from trōgōn 'gnawing, fruit-eating'. collaris is Latin for 'collared', after the white band between breast and belly. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.