- Apaloderma vittatum
Identification
28–30 cm
Male:
- Blue-black head with bronze lustre
- Yellow to orange patches of bare skin below the eye
- Yellow or grey patch above the eye
- Violet to blue-green upper breast
- Red underparts
- Green back
- Blue-black tail
- Yellow bill and feet
Female
- Brown head (with less bare skin than the male)
- Light gingery throat and breast
Immature: Similar to female
- White belly
- Pale wing spots (formed by the tips of the wing coverts and inner secondaries)
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Western Africa: Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
African Islands: Gulf of Guinea Islands, Bioko (Fernando Po)
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:
- A. v. vittatum:
- A. v. camerunensis:
- A. v. francisci:
- Bioko (Gulf of Guinea)
- A. v. delhoyoi:
- Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda through western Kenya
Habitat
High altitude forests.
Behaviour
Diet
They forage in the canopy for insects and caterpillars.
References
- Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2024. IOC World Bird List (v 14.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.14.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved January 2015)
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Bar-tailed Trogon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Bar-tailed_Trogon
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
