All species › Trogons › Trogons › Lattice-tailed Trogon
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Lattice-tailed Trogon | Trogon clathratus
Rasterstaarttrogon | Trogón colibarrado
The Lattice-tailed Trogon is a large, red-bellied trogon of the wet foothill and hill forest on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and western Panama, and does not occur outside the guide area. The name refers to the finely barred black-and-white underside of the tail. It is the only red-bellied trogon in the guide area with a pale, yellowish-white iris in both sexes.
Voice
A long series of short, clucking kwa or kook notes that gradually accelerates and rises slightly in pitch. Also a soft, rattling chatter.
Recording: Scott Olmstead — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
29–31 cm. The male is metallic green on the head, back and breast, with a red belly and undertail coverts and no white breast band. The eye is pale yellow to whitish, the bill yellow. The underside of the tail is finely barred black and white, without broad white tips. The female is slate grey where the male is green, with a red belly, a pale iris, a dark upper mandible and the same finely barred undertail.
Confusion species
Slaty-tailed Trogon Trogon massena is slightly larger, has a dark eye with an orange-red eye-ring, an orange-red bill and a plain slate-grey undertail. Collared Trogon Trogon collaris is smaller, has a white breast band and a barred undertail with broad white tips.
Habitat
Very wet, tall forest in the Caribbean hills and foothills, mostly between about 300 and 1200 m, locally lower; mainly in the forest interior and along streams and ravines. It sits inconspicuously in the middle tree layer, often with mixed flocks, and eats fruit and large insects. It nests in a cavity in a rotting trunk or in a termite nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of northern Costa Rica, from the Cordillera de Guanacaste and Cordillera de Tilarán through the Cordillera Central and Talamanca, to western Panama in Bocas del Toro and on the Caribbean side of Veraguas and Coclé. The species does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Well-known sites are Quebrada González in Braulio Carrillo and Rara Avis in Costa Rica, and the Caribbean side of Fortuna in Panama. The series of clucking notes is often the first sign; the bird sits motionless for long periods in the middle tree layer.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Its small range makes it sensitive to the loss of foothill forest, but a large part of its habitat lies in protected areas.
Scientific name
Trogon clathratus | Salvin, 1866
Salvin described the species in 1866 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'. clathratus is Latin for 'latticed', after the fine barring on the tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Santa Fé, Veraguas, Panama.