Thursday, December 27, 2007

White-tailed trogan

My favorite bird at Bosque Santa Lúcia is the white-tailed trogan (also spelled trogon), a relatively large bird compared to the many flycatchers we see. The local people call the bird "azulão", which means "big blue". Over the years, I've observed that the trogans like to nest in termite nests around the reception center. In the attached image you can see one of these termite nests. The trogan comes and goes from its nest via the larger hole in the middle of the structure. I placed drinking water at the top and we've observed that the mother birds takes her bath there too. I should say "took" her bath there because she and her youngster took off a few days ago. The bathtub is still being used, but by other birds. I've tried taking pictures of the trogans but my camera doesn't have features for that type of thing. The next best thing is to show someone else's picture. A search on the Net will yield many, but have a look at this one.

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