Slaty-tailed Trogon

The scientific name of the Slaty-tailed Trogon, or Trogon massena, is derived from the French ornithologist François Victor Masséna (1799-1863), son of the Marshals of the Empire André Masséna. The Anglo-Saxons, perhaps out of old historical rivalry, referred to it more pragmatically as the Slaty-tailed Trogon. This is a large bird at 33 to 35 cm, and like all trogonidae, it has a strong and thick bill with a slightly curved upper mandible. The male has a vivid orange beak and magnificent black whiskers on either side of the beak. The throat, chin and throat patch are dark grey, encircling a large eye surrounded by a very visible orange orbital ring, which is also orange. The forehead, cap, nape, mantle and back are emerald green, giving way to turquoise blue in the rump. The scapulars take on the emerald green colour, contrasting with the light grey coverts. The larger coverts start to darken and alternate between light grey and dark grey, ending at the primary remiges, which are dark grey. On the tail of the Slaty-tailed Trogon prolonging the rump, there are long rectrices that are dark green, which can be greyish in tone, the tips of the rectrices being marked with black, though this colouring is not always visible in the changing light of the canopy. Beneath the dark grey throat, the chest becomes gradually emerald green and a flaming crimson-red spreads halfway down the chest to the underbelly. The legs, often hidden, are light grey. The female may appear to be a different species altogether, with a grey upper mandible, which is an unmistakable distinguishing feature. The orbital ring is still orange, but less thick, and the dark grey of the throat, chin and throat patch is less differentiated from the cap and chest, the bird having lost its emerald green colour of its mate in favour of grey, covering the nape, mantle and back.The chest is also grey and the Slaty-tailed Trogon will also show the scarlet-crimson seen on Mr. The scapulars remain grey and the coverts will rather be anthracite; the remiges will darken to be practically black, the emarginations being white. The rectrices anthracite almost turn to black. The young males are a mixture of the parents' color, they show the father's livery on the back and the mother's on the ventral part, while the young females already have the color of their mother, for both sexes of young their tail is spotted with light white notches visible on the lower rectrices.