Bar-tailed Trogon Apaloderma vittatum Scientific name definitions

c. 28–30 cm; 55 g. Male with bill yellow or greenish-yellow; patches of bare skin below eye yellow or orange, above eye yellow or grey; head and throat blue-black with bronzy green gloss; breastline violet-blue; upperparts bright green; mid-breast to vent red; wingpanel barred black and grey; uppertail mainly bluish or purplish-black, outer 3 feathers barred black and white, undertail densely barred black and white; underwing with conspicuous white bar. Female has brown head and cinnamon-brown breast. Juvenile white-bellied, with wing-coverts tipped buffy-white.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Mountains in SE Nigeria, NW Cameroon, Bioko, W Angola (Mt Moco); also Albertine Rift in E DRCongo, W Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and mountains in Kenya, Tanzania, NE Zambia, Malawi and N Mozambique (Mt Namuli).

Usually in mid-stratum (4–20 m, but seldom lower than 8 m) of moist montane forest at 900–3000 m, mainly above 1600 m. In Cameroon, has been found in old second growth as well as primary forest, but seemed particularly to favour mountain tops and tree-clad ridges bounding ravines. In Malawi, sometimes in montane grassland and planted pine, presumably as a temporary local displacement. Recorded as low as 600 m in Rubeho Mountains in Tanzania. In Bioko from at least 900 m to 2000 m, including in moss forest and lichen forest.

Resident, with some vertical displacement in non-breeding season in all parts of range; also other, very poorly documented local movements. Occasional records of birds in well-watched isolated forest areas suggest extensive non-breeding wandering: some inter-montane movements of up to 100 km from nearest established population. In Malawi, wanderers found at middle or high elevations (1300–2200 m) in Aug–Dec, when territorial defence is most intense, suggest strong exploratory behaviour, birds searching for suitable habitat to settle.

Canopy insects, mainly smooth caterpillars, also Orthoptera, moths and beetles. Caterpillars and moths noted as preferred prey in Malawi; caterpillars and grasshoppers recorded in diet in Bioko. Once observed in mixed-species foraging party.

Territorial call a series of 7–14 sharp, high-pitched “wup” or “uyú” notes, increasing in volume, very like that of Freckled Nightjar (Caprimulgus tristigma); female utters whining “chee-uu”.

Nov–Jan in Bioko, Oct and Dec–Feb in Cameroon, Feb–May in Zaire, Mar in Uganda, Nov–Feb in Kenya (in and after short rains), Sept and Nov–Feb in Tanzania; nestling found in Sept in Angola; Oct–Nov in Malawi, with territorial activity Aug–Dec. Probably monogamous; territories in Malawi variable in size, 1–7·5 ha, most birds occasionally visiting small adjacent forest patches to feed, even if territory relatively large (10 ha). Nest is a cavity in a dying tree, usually c. 2 m up (1–1·5 m in Bioko). Eggs 2, sometimes 3; incubation and fledging periods undocumented.

Not globally threatened. Not uncommon on Obudu Plateau, Nigeria; in Cameroon, locally common on Mt Kupé, less so on five other mountains in W highlands; fairly frequently recorded in Bioko, although shy and difficult to observe, all records coming from primary forest; common at Itombwe, Zaire. Generally uncommon in E Africa: has disappeared in recent years from forest around Nairobi; found in Arusha National Park in Tanzania, and in three national parks in Uganda; in Rwanda, densities in Nyungwe Forest moderate even in most favourable habitat. In Zambia, density as high as 12 pairs/25 ha under closed canopy in Chowo Forest, Nyika Plateau; where canopy discontinuous, often 2–3 pairs/10 ha. Possibly extinct at Chiradzulu, Malawi. Was fairly common on Mt Namuli, Mozambique, in early 1930’s, but no recent data.