Guianan Trogon

Overview

The Guianan trogon (Trogon violaceus) is a non-migratory bird species in the family Trogonidae. It is found across parts of South America, including Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela.

Identification

• Adult males display a violet-blue head with a black mask and throat, a pale blue-gray bill, and bare pale yellow skin around the dark eye.
• The upperparts are bright metallic green, while the underparts feature bright yellow separated from the breast by a narrow white band.
• Females have a dark gray head and upperparts, a blackish bill culmen, and white arcs above and below the eye.
• The species produces a song described as a long series of rapid hollow downslurred whistles, transcribed as "kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu-kyu", alongside rolling chattering calls.

Habitat

The Guianan trogon inhabits a variety of semi-open landscapes, including savanna, forest edges, young secondary forest, and cacao and coffee plantations. Its range extends up to 1,200 m in Venezuela and is considered common in Trinidad and Suriname, though rare and local in Venezuela.

Diet

This bird feeds on fruit and arthropods, which it collects by hovering after short sallies from a perch. It frequently joins mixed-species foraging flocks during its feeding activities.

Did you know?

The species is monotypic with no recognised subspecies, despite formerly being named the violaceous trogon and including the gartered and Amazonian trogons as subspecies prior to a 2008 molecular phylogenetic study.