The Gartered Trogon (Trogon caligatus), also known as the northern violaceous trogon, is a near passerine bird in the trogon family, Trogonidae. It is found in forests in east-central Mexico, south through Central America, to north-western South America (west or north of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela). It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the otherwise exclusively South American violaceous trogon (T. violaceus).
When I saw this bird during the shore excursion on my cruise in 2011, it was still being called a Violaceous Trogon. The split came sometime in 2012 and field guides published before then will use the old name. It gets confusing as I remember my guide calling it a Violaceous Trogon in Selva Verde in 2013!
My photo is blurry so I added shots of a male (1st pic) and female from Wikipedia to show the bird’s beautiful colours to advantage.
Their range extends from Mexico through most of Central America to the tip of South America in Colombia. I have seen them during a shore excursion in Puntarenas and in Selva Verde, Costa Rica.
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Birdlife (has not separated the Gartered and Violaceous Trogons)
VIDEOS
