Ecuadorian Trogon

The Ecuadorian Trogon (Trogon mesurus) is also considered a sub species of the Black-tailed Trogon (HBW vol.6). Its scientific name may come from the Greek word mesos meaning middle, as the equator separates the Earth in two hemispheres; the two German ornithologists Jean-Louis Cabanis (1816-1906) and Ferdinand Heine (1809-1894) may have given the bird this name in relation to its location? The description of the bird is the same as that of the Black-tailed Trogon, with the difference that the iris is white in the Ecuadorian Trogon while it is brown in the Black-tailed Trogon, in both cases the eye is surrounded by a red orbital circle. The male thus has a yellow beak, black lores and throat, emerald green crown and chest, a white mark separates the chest from the red-vermillion belly. The mantle and back have the same emerald green as the crown, the upper tail feathers and the rump tending more towards the turquoise-blue. All the coverts are vermiculated with horizontal black and white lines, a characteristic of many trogons. The black primaries are marked at the margins with white lines. The lower rectrices are completely black while the upper rectrices are blue-green and outlined with a horizontal black line at the tip of the tail. The barely visible tarses are light brown. The female has a description similar to that of the female Black-tailed Trogon: yellow beak with a very marked black culmen, white iris and the absence of the orbital circle which is still visible in the female Black-tailed Trogon, the lores are almost completely black, the chest and upper part of the belly are grey, the belly is red and there is no white mark, visible in the male, separating the chest from the belly. The mantle and back are grey, the vermiculations of the coverts are barely visible, the female showing the same white margins on the primaries.The lower and upper tail feathers are completely black.