Trogons and Mousebirds
Trogons are some of the most brilliantly colored birds in the world. According to Guatemalan Indian
legend, the male Resplendent quetzal, most brilliant of all, with glittering metallic green above and crimson below, received its stunning plumage during the Spanish conquest of South America. After a particularly gruel-some battle, huge flocks of quetzals (which were then only green) flew down to keep watch over the dead Mayas, thus staining their breasts red.
The feathers of the resplendent quetzal’s head are bristly and upstanding, forming an arrow ridged crest. The bright green middle wing-coverts are very long, overlap-ping onto the flanks, while the greenuppertail coverts are so elongated that they extend far beyond the normal tail length, forming a graceful curving train which hangs below the bird when perched. Climax cloud forests appear to be essential for the existence of the resplendent quetzal which ranges along an i, 600km stretch from southern Mexico to western Panama. Unfortunately, the species has much decreased as a consequence of habitat destruction, and there are few areas whereat can now be claimed to be abundant. Especially important to the quetzal are the trees of the laurel family, and it is particularly fond of the Ocoee fruit.
Unlike other species of trogon, the Resplendent quetzal has a well-marked dies-play flight in which the male flies high above the forest canopy, circling around before dropping back into the foliage, giving distinctive “wac-NNac” call notes. The nest chamber is a rough out in a rotting tree trunk, often at some considerable height. Both sexes incubate and tend the young. Outside the breeding season, resplendent quetzals are mainly found singly, although small flocks are occasionally reported.
The rare eared trogon is found in western Mexico in mountain pine or pine-oak forest. It normally perches in the middle and upper branches of’ a tall tree, or flies with a flutter-in undulating flight, high up. The small brush-like ear tufts of this trogon are unique, but not easily seen and it differs from other similarly plumaged trogons by having black rather than a yellow bill. The headland upper parts are glossy green and it is scarlet below, showing a good deal of whitens the underside of the square-ended blackmail.
The 15 species of the genus Trogon range from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. They are birds of similar appearance, glossy green or greenish-blue above, and Scarlet, pink or yellow below. The Col-lured trogon has the largest range of all New World trogons, also occurring in the tropical forest zones of Trinidad and Tobago as wells on the subtropical slopes of the Andes up to 2, 5 rooms (about 8,00oft).
There are three species of trogon found in Africa, of which the Narnia trogon is the commonest and most widespread, being found from lowland forest up to 3, 3oom(almost 1 L000ft) in montage forest. The male is bright glossy green above and on the throat and breast, with a scarlet belly. The Bar-tailed trogon has a darker head and anarrowly barred whitish underside to thetail. The Yellow-checked trogon is a largerbird with brighter red underparts and is alittle known species of primary evergreenforest.
The species of Asian trogons belongingto the genus Harpactes range from westernIndia to southeast China, Indo-China,Malaya and Indonesia. Like the New Worldand African trogons they have colorfulplumages, short rounded wings, a longsquare-tipped tail and very short, weak legs.The bill is short and broad, and is cobalt bluein most species, as is the bare patch of skinaround the eye. Unlike the New World tro-gons, which include a very high proportionof fruit in their diet, the oriental trogons feedmainly on large insects and smallvertebrates, which they snatch from leavesas they swoop past. Several species arewidely distributed, such as the Orange-breasted trogon, which lives in evergreenforest from Burma to Malaya, from Thailandand southwest China to Java.
The Malaysian region is by far the richestin trogon species, with eight present inSumatra and six in Borneo. The largest species, Ward’s trogon, is found in forest above 800m in northeast Burma and northwest Tonkin, also in Bhutan and Assam.
Mousebirds are so called because of their curious way of moving through the thick foliage of their African forest environment—they crawl around the branches, sometimes resting on the leg rather than the foot, as well as pulling themselves up by their bill,parrot-fashion. These habits are reflected in the anatomy of the foot normally the bird holds the center two toes forwards and the
other two splayed out partly sideways, butthe latter are very mobile and can be heldforwards or backwards.
All species are rather loosely feathered ingray or brown, though several have a singledistinctive marking such as a chestnut rump (Red-backed mousebird), a blue back to thehead (mousebird), or a red mask(Red-faced mousebird).
Mousebirds are common—sometimes very common—anti widespread over the African continent. They live in small flocks from about 6-20 birds. They tend to clamber about in dense bushes and then fly to the next, only a very short distance away.They have short rounded wings and are not strong fliers : flight is usually a series of rapid, whirring wing beats followed by alongish glide. Members of the flock keep in contact with a series of short whistles or twitters.
Mousebirds not only live in flocks by day,but they roost together at night, often tightly packed. They have also been reported as sleeping hanging head down-ward in a tight cluster. At least some species appear to allow their body temperature to fall at night, warming themselves up again in the morning presumably by doing this they help to conserve energy by reducing overnight heat loss. This habit might point to a relationship with the night jars, swifts and hummingbirds, some of which have the same ability.
Mousebirds have short, stubby, finch-likebeaks and feed mainly on berries and fruits,though they sometimes also take animalmatter they use their feet to help hold fooditems. They are considered serious pests ingardens and orchards.
Their breeding biology is not particularly well-known. In at least some species, both sexes incubate the eggs, though in the Speckled mousebird the female seems to do most of the brooding of the young. The young are naked in the early stages; although they remain in or near the nest until they are able to fly, the larger young may clamber around in the branches close to the nest