Howdy, friends.  This is the last thing I have to do before clocking out for the holiday, so you will excuse me if I’m brief.  I am continuing to work my way through a list of tropical birds I found on an ecotourism website.  These birds are all very pretty, but there isn’t usually a whole lot of info about them.  As in all such cases, I choose to believe that that’s because the birds are really good at hiding from us despite their impressive plumage, and not because there are few of them around.  

Our bird this week is the collared trogon.  Its eight or ten subspecies (depending on who you ask) live in southern Mexico as well as large parts of Central and South America.  I will direct you to my citations at the bottom of the page rather than enumerate another long list of countries.  On the plus side, this bird’s very large range means that it is assessed as “of least concern” by the IUCN, despite my reflexive pessimism a mere paragraph above.  I was also able to find data showing that forest loss has been very low within its range, which is another good sign.  

As would befit its large range, the collard targon lives in a variety of biomes and at a variety of altitudes.  In South America it lives in evergreen forests, both primary (those which have never been cut down) and “well-established secondary” forests.   “Well established” is a new caveat for me as far as forests are concerned, but I guess that makes sense.  There’s “the forest is officially back” and “the forest has officially been back for a while.”   In the northern parts of its range it lives in these same kinds of forests as well as humid montane forests and forests not entirely dominated by evergreen trees.  Via Wikipedia: “It is found as high as 2,400 m (7,870 ft) in Mexico and 2,300 m (7,550 ft) in Costa Rica, but in the Andes it is mostly below 1,300 m (4,270 ft) in Ecuador and 1,200 m (3,940 ft) in Peru.”

The collard trogon prefers dense vegetation and lives in the middle-upper part of the forest canopy, and usually forages singly or in pairs  It sometimes joins the periphery of mixed foraging flocks but keeps to itself and doesn’t mix with other birds.  It eats small fruits and a mix of invertebrates I am increasingly tempted to just refer to as “the usual.”  Crickets, beetles, cicadas, etc.  

Nesting season varies widely throughout its range.  Nests are built in rotting wood or in appropriated termite nests built in trees, which I didn’t know was a thing.  The nests are often so shallow that most of the bird is outside of it when roosting.  Both parents work to build the nest and both will care for the young before they fledge.  

That does it for me, friends.  I just saw the notification that my out of office has popped up, so it must be quitting time.  Have a good weekend, everyone.  Be kind to yourselves and others.  Remember, rest is not a reward, you just get to. 

Links: https://tinyurl.com/ys3ck2zt, https://tinyurl.com/ysdbvan4, https://tinyurl.com/3eu2cvae, https://tinyurl.com/mvk4nzrp, https://tinyurl.com/33cyzh4x