Trogons | Trogoniformes

Trogonachtigen | Trogones

Forest birds with a compact body, a large head on a short neck and a long, straight-hanging tail with broad feathers 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. Movement is by flight, in short rapid sallies in which insects, caterpillars and small fruits are plucked from leaf or twig on the wing. The skin is notably thin and the feathers are so loosely set that they come away in tufts if the bird is seized. Breeding is in a cavity the bird gnaws out for itself in rotten wood, an arboreal termite nest or a wasp nest, without nest material, on a few round unmarked eggs. The order holds a single family with a tropical distribution across three continents; Mexico and Central America are among its richest regions, with the trogons, the quetzals and the Eared Quetzal of the mountains of western Mexico.

Families in this order

Trogons | Trogonidae15 speciesMexico and Central America are among the richest regions for the family, with fifteen species in three genera: the trogons, the quetzals and the Eared Quetzal of the mountain forests of western Mexico. They live in almost every forest type, from dry deciduous forest and mangrove to cloud forest. 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. The male Resplendent Quetzal carries greatly elongated upper tail coverts that hang far beyond the tail; to the Maya and Aztecs these feathers were sacred. The nest is a cavity gnawed out in rotten wood, an arboreal termite nest or a wasp nest, with two or three unmarked eggs.