Ward's Trogon

Scottish ornithologist Norman Boyd Kinnear (1882-1957) discovered Ward's Trogon in 1927 in northern Burma, and paid homage to explorer and botanist Frank Kingdon Ward (1885-1958), who loved Asia and was still climbing altitudes of 3300 metres at over 68 years of age! The term extraordinary is an understatement for describing Ward's Trogon; one can speak of dimorphism amongst birds, but here the difference is total and we almost have two separate birds. They are part of the large trogon family, measuring 35-38 cm long and weighing 115-120 grams. The male has a red tip for its beak and a grey base, and vibrissae sticking out from either side of the beak. Its forehead is red-vermilion, its eye rim and frontal eye-stripe are black which contrast with a large blue orbital circle, and the iris is dark brown. The crown, nape, back of the eye and scapulars are a greyish-violetbrown colour, which can vary in its tones depending on age or the individual bird. The chest, mantle, back and scapulars have the same greyish-violetbrown shade, and the belly is red with a rosy hue on the lower side. The black coverts are striped with thin white horizontal lines, and the black remiges are bordered with white on the notching edge. The three lower rectrices of Ward's Trogon have one unique trait amongst the trogonidae family - they are pink with a small grey base! When spread, they show the upper rectrices to be black, so from the back the bird appears to have a black tail. The companion of Ward's Trogon did not want to be outdone; while females are often less noticeable in most trogons, Madam Trogon was not to be outshone and sported a brightly different livery.The beak is light yellow with a black culmen, the base of the beak is light gray-brown, the forehead is gold yellow and the eyebrow is fawn, the same black enclosure around the eye is still there marking the blue orbital circle, the iris is always dark brown. The cap and nape are light olive-brown, the throat slightly blackened, the mantle, back, scapulars and chest are of a color oscillating between olive-brown and pastel purple, this very fine and nuance coloration will depend to a large extent on the ambient brightness. The belly is yellow, the brown coverts are vermiculated with very close beige-fawn wavy patterns, the remiges are dark brown and bordered with white at the emarginations. The lower rectrices are at least as original as those of its companion, madame has replaced the pink with a layer of yellow and kept the brown bases, the upper rectrices are dark brown, appearing almost black with some lights. We can notice at this stage of the description that we have to do with the single trogon that has rectrices of a different color from white or black and that has chosen two totally different colors, pink and yellow, according to sex. Supreme coquetry, the light pink-brown tarsi ! Young males have not been observed, young females have a paler yellow color in the belly, the mantle and back are light brown, the yellow mark on the forehead is not yet visible.