Birds of Costa Rica

○ ← TROGONIFORMES: Trogonidae (Trogons) →

Genus: Trogon (8 species, 23 worldwide)

Trogons are slender colorful birds that inhabit tropical forests worldwide. Sizes rance from 23 to 33 cm.. American Trogons comsume both fruits and insects, and consume both by taking the food item in flight. Nests are made in holes in rotting wood, termite or wasp nests.


Baird's Trogon (Trogon bairdii) Male Near Threatened Mastatal, Puriscal, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Baird's Trogon (Trogon bairdii) Female Near Threatened Mastatal, Puriscal, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Gartered Trogon (Trogon caligatus) Male ProAves Blue-billed Curassow Reserve, Puerto Pinzon, Boyaca, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Gartered Trogon (Trogon caligatus sallaei) Male Rio Danta, Guapiles, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Gartered Trogon (Trogon caligatus) Female Zafra Reserva Natural, Antioquia, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

A small trogon. Note broken (or thin at top/bottom) eye-ring on female, and yellow eye-ring on male.
From back with broken eye-ring.


Lattice-tailed Trogon (Trogon clathratus) Male PN Braulio Carrillo, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Collared Trogon (Trogon collaris) Costa Rica The Central American Orange-bellied Trogon, now considered the same species as the red-bellied Collared Trogon.
Photograph by Raymond J. Barlow © All Rights Reserved.


Collared Trogon (Trogon collaris collaris) Male Reserva Natural La Isla Escondida, Orito, Putumayo, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Collared Trogon (Trogon collaris) Female Minga Ecolodge, Cali, Colombia
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

Generally found below 1800 m. In Central America, the Orange-bellied Trogon is now considered the same species as the Collared Trogon.
A Andean male.
An unusual orange-bellied individual reminiscent of the Orange-bellied Trogon in Costa Rica that was lumped with the Collared Trogon.


Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) USA
Photograph by Dominic Sherony Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

The northernmost Trogon


Slaty-tailed Trogon (Trogon massena) Male Darien, Panama
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Slaty-tailed Trogon (Trogon massena hoffmanni) Female Soberania National Park, Panama Female is overall greyish, but has a red belly like the male.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Black-headed Trogon (Trogon melanocephalus) Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Black-headed Trogon (Trogon melanocephalus) Bajamar, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Northern Black-throated Trogon (Trogon tenellus) Male Tirimbina, Costa Rica
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Northern Black-throated Trogon (Trogon tenellus) Female Tirimbina, Costa Rica
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.

© Tom Friedel - All Rights Reserved, except for images and data otherwise noted.       Colombia       Panama       Ecuador       Costa Rica       Mexico
Experimental sites:       Peru       Venezuela       The World       Brazil       Bolivia
Really Experimental sites:       Guyana       Cuba