Blue-crowned Trogon

The Blue-crowned Trogon is a colorful, moderately sized trogon of central South America, closely related to the Gartered Trogon of Central America and once considered part of the same species complex. Males show a glossy green head and back with a subtle blue sheen concentrated on the crown, a black face mask, a green chest, and a bright yellow belly; the undertail is finely barred black-and-white, and a blue ring of bare skin surrounds the eye. Females are grayer overall with a white eye-ring or postocular spot, retaining the yellow belly.

Key field marks

• Male: green head with a blue-toned crown, black face mask, green chest, yellow belly, finely barred undertail, blue eye-ring.
• Female: grayer overall, yellow belly, whitish eye markings.

Similar species

Black-throated Trogon has a solid black throat rather than a green chest with just a facial mask, and lacks the blue crown sheen. Gartered Trogon (its Central American counterpart) is very similar but occurs in a largely separate range; the two were formerly considered conspecific.

Blue-crowned Trogons inhabit forest edge, gallery forest, dry to semi-humid woodland, and secondary growth across central South America, including the southern Amazon fringe, the Cerrado and Chaco regions, and parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina. It is a non-migratory resident, generally found at lower elevations and tolerant of more open or seasonal woodland than many forest-interior trogons.

Voice

A soft series of clear, evenly spaced whistled notes, delivered from a perch, similar in structure to other trogons in its genus.

Feeding

It forages by sitting still and sallying out to pluck fruit or catch large insects in flight, returning to the same or a nearby perch, in typical trogon fashion.

Nesting and breeding

Pairs excavate a cavity in rotten wood or make use of an existing cavity, sometimes within an active termite or wasp nest, for their nest. Both parents share incubation and feeding of the young.