Overview

Elegant Trogon: Iridescent green upperparts and breast. Red undertail and belly, separated from green breast by a white band, long iridescent copper green, square tail tipped in black. White undertail with black streaks. Often seen perching upright. Slow undulating flight, can be rapid when needed.

Elegant Trogon: Most adaptable, living in a wide variety of habitats ranging from tropical lowland forested floodplains, high elevation riparian woodlands, arid scrublands, woodlands, and temperate upland coniferous forests. Permanent resident in Mexico, also found in Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and the lower Rio Grande of south Texas.

Voice Text

"wehrr, rr, rr, rr, rr, rr", "kwerr, rrrerrr", "k row hr"

• The Greek "trogon" means gnawer and describes the Elegant Trongon’s hefty, serrated bill.
• A nesting pair cannot excavate their own nest hole and often re-use nests from previous years, most of which were initially made by woodpeckers. The male initially chooses a hole about 25 feet above the ground, but the female appears to make the final nest site decision.
• Like owls, they can see in low light and turn their heads through nearly 360 degrees.

• Eared Quetzal

Trogons (Trogonidae)

ORDER

The taxonomic order TROGONIFORMES (pronounced tro-gon-ih-FOR-meez) is composed of the trogons, a family of birds mostly occurring in tropical regions of the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

There are forty-two species of trogons in seven genera in the Trogonidae (pronounced tro-GON-ih-dee) family.

NORTH AMERICA

In North America, eighteen species of trogons in four genera have been identified.

KNOWN FOR

The trogons, including the Elegant Trogon, are known for their beautiful, glittering, iridescent plumages.

PHYSICAL

Members of the Trogonidae are medium to large birds with a distinctive, long, rectangular shaped tail, rounded head with medium length, broad bill, and short wings. Their legs are very short and weak with zygodactyl feet – two toes pointing forward and two pointing backwards. However, unlike other zygodactylic birds though, in trogons it is the innermost toe that points backwards instead of the outermost toe.

COLORATION

Males of the two North American species of trogons recorded in the United States have iridescent blue-green upperparts shown by many species in this family, and deep red underparts. Females share the red underparts but have mostly gray upperparts. Like many other trogon species, both males and females of the Eared Quetzal and the Elegant Trogon have extensive white on the undertail, the uppertail the same color as the back in the Eared Quetzal and copper-colored in the Elegant Trogon.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

A family with a primarily tropical distribution, only two species reaches the United States. Both occur in southwestern Arizona with one of these, the Elegant Trogon, also rarely showing up in southern Texas. The Elegant Trogon is a fairly common breeding bird of oak woodlands in the mountains of southeastern Arizona, while the Eared Quetzal is a very rare visitor and breeder in coniferous forests of the same region.

MIGRATION

The Elegant Trogon migrates a short distance south to Mexico from its breeding grounds in Arizona.

HABITS

Trogons are typically found in pairs, although the Eared Quetzal sometimes occurs in small groups. Like all members of this family, these arboreal birds forage for insects and fruit by sallying out to briefly hover and pluck the food item with their bills from the vegetation, then flying to a nearby branch to eat it.

CONSERVATION

The Eared Quetzal is threatened by logging of the montane, coniferous forests it requires.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Resplendent Quetzal is a member of the Trogonidae. This spectacular bird of southern Mexico and Central America was worshipped by the Mayans, and is represented on Guatemalan currency (which is also called the Quetzal). Like other trogons, it nests in tree cavities, an especially scarce resource for a bird unable excavate its own holes.

Author

Artist

Irina Rud-Volga