Blue-tailed Trogon Trogon comptus Scientific name definitions

The Blue-tailed Trogon is fairly common to uncommon in humid forest foothills of Colombia and northwest Ecuador, up to 1,800m. It is a metallic blueish-green overall, with a black mask, bright red belly and undertail coverts, and a uniformly dark undertail. The rump and uppertail have a purple hue and both sexes show a broad and definite black tip on uppertail. Adults have white eyes and yellow bills, which in combination with its smaller size and black tail band distinguish this species from the similar Slaty-tailed Trogon, which is sometimes sympatric. The blue-tailed Trogon is often solitary but can also be observed in loose groups. To avoid confusion with an old world trogon of the same common name, this species is sometimes referred to as the Chocó Trogon (Ridegly & Greenfield 2001).

28 cm; 104 g. Male with yellow bill, white iris; face and throat blackish; crown to back, and breast, green with slight bluish tinge , rump and tail purplish-blue, tail broadly tipped black; vermiculated wingpanel; belly to undertail-coverts red; undertail slaty. Differs from T. massena in smaller size, shorter tail, bill and eye colours, no conspicuous orbital ring, bluish tinge to green of plumage, rump and tail colour. Female with slaty upper mandible, head, upperparts, wings and tail, grey breast to mid-belly, red lower belly to undertail-coverts; differs from female T. massena in white iris, yellow lower mandible, darker grey breast.

W Colombia (S from N Antioquia and NE Chocó) and NW Ecuador (S to Pichincha).

Humid and wet forest and forest borders, favouring foothills and broken hilly terrain, from sea-level to 1800 m; once recorded in forest along riverbanks formed by slopes and 60-m sandstone bluffs.

Presumably sedentary.

No information.

Song very similar to that of T. melanurus, but notes slightly lower and more widely spaced.

Birds in breeding condition in Mar. No other details known.

Not globally threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Nechí Lowlands EBA and Chocó EBA. Usually less numerous than T. massena, with which it sometimes occurs. In one study, singing males were spaced several hundred metres apart along banks of R Bojayá, NW Colombia.