Blue-crowned Trogon, Brazil (1 Viewer)

[arthurgrosset]

I was just about to upload the attached photo of what I thought was a female Blue-crowned Trogon Trogon curucui when I thought I had better check the tail pattern. On looking up the Handbook, I noticed that the bill colour is illustrated as bright yellow and this feature is mentioned in the text.
I checked with Ridgely & Greenfield's Birds of Ecuador where the illustration shows a yellow bill but the text says that the female's bill is "blackish above and pale grayish below."
I then went to Robin Restall's Birds of Northern South America where the illustration and the text agree that the female's bill is "blackish above, grey below"
Can anyone explain this? Is it a function of sub-species or age or what?

 

[jocateme]

Well, this seems undoubtedly a (very pretty) female Blue-crowned Trogon to me, given the white present in the loreal and preocular regions, beside belly and breast colours and tail pattern (although this, too, seems a little odd to me). That bill detail really is strange. None of my books has any specific information about the bill, but Sigrist illustrates it similarly as Ridgely & Greenfield and Restall: a grayish bill, quite darker above. Having no experience at all with this bird, I'm really not able to solve this mystery, but I hope someone with more experience can deal with it.

Cheers!

 

[AlexC]

Just wanted to comment on the great photo, Arthur! Sorry I can't be of help. The least I can do is...

BUMP!