White-tailed Trogon Trogon viridis

White-tailed trogons are medium-sized, stout-bodied, perching birds with short necks, prominent eyes and large square-tipped tails. Their feet and legs are disproportionately small and often hidden by the feathers of their stomachs. Coloration is predominately black, yellow and white, with the males more brilliantly colored than the females. Male trogons have a metallic green and blue wash over black feathers, and the underside of their tails is mostly white with a few black blotches. The underside of females’ tails is barred with black and white. In the wild, the trogon's diet is primarily fruit and insects. At the Aquarium, trogons feed on a variety of fruits, berries, vegetables and insects, as well as commercial soft-bill bird pellets. Males and females are similar in size, about 11 to 12 inches, including the tail. These trogons range from Panama to northern Bolivia east of the Andes, including most of Brazil. They are found in a variety of habitats, including deciduous, rain and second-growth forests, clearings and along waterways. White-tailed trogons are thought to be relatively common throughout their range. Birds of prey and snakes are the trogon's primary predators. Fledgling (young) birds are particularly vulnerable to predation because they spend most of their time on low branches or on the ground. The white-tailed trogon (Trogon chionurus), also known as the Western white-tailed trogon, is a near passerine bird in the trogon family. It is found in tropical humid forests of the Chocó, ranging from Panama, through western Colombia, to western Ecuador. It was formerly considered a subspecies of T. viridis, which is widespread in South America east of the Andes, but under the English name white-tailed trogon (a name now reserved for T. chionurus, leaving T. viridis as the green-backed trogon). This relatively large trogon is 28 to 30 centimetres (11 to 12 in) long. As most trogons, it is strongly sexually dimorphic. In the male the head and upper breast are dark blue (appears blackish in poor light), and the back is green, becoming bluer on the rump. The lower underparts are orange-yellow. The wings are black, vermiculated with white. The undertail is almost entirely white with only a very narrow black base to each feather. The complete eye-ring is pale bluish. The female white-tailed trogon resembles the male, but has a grey back, head and breast, and rather indistinct black-and-white barring mainly to the inner webs of each tail feather (less on outer webs). For comparison, the similar but smaller gartered trogon (T. caligatus) has a yellow (male) or incomplete white eye-ring (female), and the male also has barring to the undertail. There is no overlap in the distribution of the white-tailed and green-backed trogons, but the two can be separated by the undertail pattern: Unlike the white-tailed trogon, the male green-backed trogon has a broad black base to each feather, and the female has relatively distinct black-and-white barring mainly to the outer webs of each feather. The male white-tailed trogon also has a bluer rump than the green-backed trogon. The song of the white-tailed trogon consists of 15-20 very fast cow notes. They typically perch upright and motionless. Although their flight is fast, they are reluctant to fly any distance. Their broad bills and weak legs reflect their diet and arboreal habits. White-tailed trogons feed mainly on small fruit, supplemented by arthropods – slightly more so in the dry season when fruit are scarce.