Can someone please confirm that pic #1 & 2 is a male Elegant Trogon and #3, 4, 5 is female Black-throated Trogon? Taken at Albergue Heliconias Lodge in Costa Rica in January.
Thanks
Chris
Thanks
Chris
Agree. Male Gartered has a grey bill.Why not all Black-thorated Trogon?
Agree. Male Gartered has a grey bill.
Ho can you ignore the eye ring?
Male Gartered is the only Trogon in CR with a yellow eye ring?
Not ignoring it. Just that the bill is orange-yellow. The photos you linked show greenish bill (greyish-green), nothing close to the colour the OP bird shows (and the eye ring seems to be thicker as well). Note Birds of Peru (I know, different ssp, sulphureus there while it's tenellus in CR) illustrates Black-throated with an orange-yellow eye-ring. Not sure which species it is but I don't have enough time for the analysis this deserves right now. I thought the remaining tail feather (the innermost?) would offer clues to which species as well.
Well, it seems it's simpler than it seemed and we were complicating it. The bird (Trogon sp.) is moulting its tail, with only one tail feather left (the outermost tail feather on the left side). It's a fully dark feather and the only Trogon recorded in Costa Rica (full list below) with fully dark outer tail feathers is really Slaty-tailed Trogon (Trogon massena). Every other species would show black and white barring or broad white tips seen either from above or below. The only thing that confuses me is the apparently yellow plumage showing on the tail sides on the 1st pic (should be red), but that could have been caused by the flash? Possibly an immature? Bill colour doesn't seem to be fully developed either? But I guess the tail pattern is conclusive.
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Why are you sure that it's an outer tail feather?
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Is there any other possible interpretation? If you have one please present it.
OK, feather details aside, Black-throated is known, to occasionally show a yellow orbital ring and has yellow underparts.
If this were Slaty-tailed, it would have both an abberent eye ring and underpart colouration?
I'm looking at the range map for StT and I'm not sure it would be in range at Albergue Heliconias Lodge?
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I'm not sure it would need to be aberrant, if age related factors could explain it (field guides have no details regarding that...). My point with all the above is that I think tail pattern is a diagnostic criterion in trogons, isn't it?
I have added a link to that previous thread to the Opus pageI was hoping to learn something from you when you told me how you know it's an outer tail feather?
If it's not an outer, it could still be Gartered though I now don't think it is. We could do with some input from Patrick O'Donnell.
Here's the previous thread I mentioned, the concensus was that the bird I thought was Gartered, was Black-throated, despite the bright yellow eye ring.
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=343665&highlight=Trogon
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