Narina Trogon

Narina Trogon, the name for this African trogon, comes from a surprise discovery. In 1815, British ornithologist James Francis Stephens recorded the species, but it was actually French ornithologist Francois Levaillant who first spotted it in South Africa. Levaillant became friends with Dutch ornithologist Jacob Temminck, who funded his expedition to Africa from 1781 to 1784. Levaillant brought back over 2,000 bird skins, including the Narina Trogon's, whom he named after the Hottentot word for flower. French ornithologist René Primevère Lesson disputed Levaillant's name, revealing that it was given to honor a young woman with whom the explorer had a romantic attachment. The male Narina Trogon has a long, pale yellow beak with a pale blue tip and visible bristles at the base. It has a narrow, light blue eye brow and an eyeshade that extends from its beak, as well as a distinctive yellow-blue eye ridge, both of which distinguish it from other African Apaloderma trogons. Its metallic green head, neck, mantle, back, and scapulae have blue highlights, while its chest is colored green like the back. Its flanks, belly, and undertail are red. Its primaries are black with white edgings, while the rest of its plumage is grayish black with thin, white lines.The three outer pairs of rectrices are white and the two central pairs are dark blue-green. The female has a pale yellow beak with a blue-yellow mark, a brown iris surmounted by a thin pale blue eyebrow, and the same blue-yellow mark is visible behind the eye; the forehead, throat, parotids and chest are brown-cinnamon. A wide pale pink band between the chest and the red abdomen is visible. The crown, nape, mantle and back are green, the small and medium coverts and the tertiary remiges are vermiculated black and white, the black primaries retain the white edgings of the male. The outer white rectrices are greyed in the centre and the central rectrices are dark blue-green like those of its companion. The tarsi are dark pink. The juveniles resemble their mother, the back is pale green with brown reflections, the coverts and remiges are chamois sprinkled with white marks, the marks visible on the head in the extension of the beak, the eyebrow and the back of the eye are white and it will take many months before the male and female characteristics appear. Six subspecies are recognized, ssp narina in southern Africa has been described above; ssp littorale, found on the east coast of Africa, is smaller, the male has the back and chest green-bronze, the abdomen is paler, the head marks are brilliant blue-green, the female has a paler chest; ssp brachyurum, from Cameroon to Uganda in Central Africa, the male has the back and chest blue-green, the coverts have finer and darker vermiculations, the head spots are blue-green rather than blue, the tail is shorter, the female has a greyer than brown head and chest, the head marks are, like the male, blue-green and the tail is also shorter; ssp constantia, confined to West Africa, does not have the small and medium green coverts with vermiculated marks but has directly striped black and white coverts, the head marks, eyebrow, back of the beak and eye are yellow, the beak is yellowish green, the outer rectrices of the tail are bluish, the female has bluish-grey marks; ssp rufiventre, from Central Africa from the south bank of the Congo to Botswana, with back and chest green-bronze, the abdomen shows a brighter red; ssp arcanum, from Chad to Ethiopia, has the same appearance as rufiventre but with a longer tail. Narina Trogon.