Elegant Trogon

Birds Name	Elegant trogon
Science Name	Trogon elegans
Domain	Eukaryota
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Trogoniformes
Family	Trogonidae
Genus	Trogon
Species	T.elegans

The Elegant Trogon is a dazzling bird of tropical lineage that reaches only the far northern edges of North America. Imagine a patch of bright rose-red underbrush suddenly bursting into flight – the bird you see has an iridescent emerald-green back, a white breast band, and a rich coppery-red belly. The male Elegant Trogon appears as if painted with jewels: metallic green head and upperparts, a bold white chest stripe, and vivid red on the breast and undertail. His long, square-tipped tail shimmers with banded green and copper tones. The female is more subdued: her upperparts are gray-brown, the belly a faded pinkish-red, and she has a distinctive white teardrop patch below the eye. Both sexes share the trogon’s classic compact, upright posture and chunky body. They perch very upright on branches – almost stick-straight – with a long tail that hangs below the perch. The bill is short and thick, the head large and round, giving trogons a “pot-bellied” look. In flight the bird is surprisingly fast and powerful for its ponderous look. Elegant Trogons often sit motionless for long periods, scanning the surroundings, before suddenly lurching forward or hovering briefly to pluck an insect or berry.

Taxonomy

The Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) belongs to the order Trogoniformes and family Trogonidae – a small, ancient group of birds found in tropical woods around the world. It is the only trogon regularly found in the United States (the closely related Eared Quetzal appears only rarely in the southwest). The genus Trogon (from Greek trogōn, “gnawer,” alludes to their bill and feeding style) contains roughly a dozen New World species, all of which share the distinctive short-necked, squat appearance. Five subspecies of Elegant Trogon are recognized, broadly grouped by geography and subtle plumage differences. In the U.S. and northern Mexico the subspecies T. e. canescens or ambiguus (depending on taxonomy) turns up – the only trogon breeding in Arizona and occasionally New Mexico. Elsewhere in its range the nominate T. e. elegans breeds in Guatemala and parts of Mexico, while T. e. lubricus occupies Honduras to northwestern Costa Rica, and T. e. goldmani is endemic to Mexico’s Tres Marías Islands. (Some taxonomies even split the northern population as a separate species due to bill and tail color differences, but most treat them all as one species.) Trogons are evolutionarily distinct – they possess a unique heterodactyl foot (with two toes forward and two back) found in no other birds, which helps them cling to branches in the understory.

Distribution

The Elegant Trogon spans a broad but patchy range from Central America up into the American Southwest. Most of the world’s Elegant Trogons live south of the U.S. border – across Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and into Costa Rica – thriving in tropical and subtropical forests. But a fraction of the Mexican population ventures north each spring to breed in the “Madrean Sky Islands” of the U.S.-Mexico border region. In the United States, they occur only in a few mountain ranges of southeast Arizona (the Huachucas, Santa Ritas, Chiricahuas, Atacosa, and Patagonia Mountains) and very sparingly in southwest New Mexico’s Peloncillo Mountains. Occasionally wandering individuals show up as far away as southern Texas, but such vagrants are rare. (The subspecies canescens/ambiguus inhabits Arizona and northern Mexico woodlands; in Mexico the bird’s range extends from Sonora and Chihuahua south along the Sierra Madre and Central Volcanic Belt.) In Central America the Elegant Trogon extends at least as far south as northwest Costa Rica, with contiguous populations through Honduras and Guatemala.

Elegant Trogons occupy a wide variety of woodland types, but with some common threads. In the U.S. they are closely associated with riparian canyons and mountain oak–pine forests. Think sycamore- and oak-lined streams deep in semi-arid canyons, often with junipers and pines on the slopes above. In Arizona they prefer steep canyons with running water and old sycamore, oak, or cottonwood trees – essentially the bottomlands of what would otherwise be desert. In Mexico and Central America they can live from lowland dry forests up into mid-elevation pine–oak woodlands. They avoid dense humid rainforest; instead they favor drier tropical foothills and montane forests. Across its range the Elegant Trogon is primarily a low- to mid-elevation species, nesting from roughly 1,000 to 2,500 meters in the most southern mountains, and often between 1,200 and 1,800 m in Arizona. (By contrast the related Resplendent Quetzal prefers cloud forests above 1,500 m; the Elegant tolerates lower dry areas.) These birds do occasionally move short distances in response to seasonal food changes, but in Mexico and Central America most populations are resident year-round. Only the northernmost breeders migrate: trogons that nest in Arizona and northern Mexico will return south each fall.

Population and Status

The global population of Elegant Trogon is currently estimated at on the order of 150,000–200,000 individuals. Overall this species is classified as Least Concern by conservation authorities; it remains fairly common in many parts of Mexico and Central America. However, its status in the United States is much more tenuous. Only on the order of a few dozen or at most one hundred individuals breed in Arizona each year. A handful of pairs nest in New Mexico (Peloncillo Mts.), and records in Texas are accidental. One survey of Arizona “Sky Island” ranges found that typically 130–140 trogons are counted per spring, but severe drought pushed that number down to just 31 in 2024 (the lowest count on record). (By contrast, 2023’s surveys tallied nearly 120 birds in those same ranges.) In short, while the species is not globally endangered, the peripheral U.S. population is very small and fluctuates widely with climate conditions. Table 1 (below) illustrates the recent survey counts in the five mountain ranges of Arizona where they breed. Even in Mexico, some populations appear localized and could be sensitive to habitat change. Both the Arizona Game & Fish Department and New Mexico list the Elegant Trogon as a species of conservation concern (New Mexico even tags it as state-endangered due to the tiny breeding population there). BirdLife International still considers the overall trend to be stable or only slowly declining, but experts warn that the northern populations show worrying declines.

Table 1. Arizona breeding counts of Elegant Trogons in May of 2024 vs 2025 (volunteer surveys in five mountain ranges of SE Arizona). These counts reflect only a portion of the birds, since trogons can be hard to detect; even so, the dramatic drop in 2025 is notable.

Overall, most Elegant Trogons are not migratory (except at the range edge). Those that breed in Arizona arrive each spring (typically March–May) and depart by early fall (by September–October). In the core Mexican range, trogons stay year-round, though they may wander among nearby mountains or descend slightly in dry seasons. The species occasionally strays far from its normal range – there are records from Texas and even from lowland Guatemala outside breeding season – but these are one-off sightings, not established populations.

Habitat

Elegant Trogons are habitat specialists in the sense that they demand a particular suite of features. Across their range they are almost always tied to trees and water. In Arizona and New Mexico, this means cool, shaded riparian canyons and wooded thickets where sycamore, oak, cottonwood, walnut, or box elder line a creek or stream. They commonly perch in mid-level branches of sycamores and alders, often near running water. In Mexico and Central America they use similar canyon bottoms and also drier foothill forests. They occupy pine–oak woodlands and juniper–oak flats at altitude, but always with some structural complexity and a few big trees. (In Honduras and Nicaragua they may even visit coffee plantations or secondary woods with scattered tall trees.) Crucially, Elegant Trogons need old growth or mature second-growth trees that can provide nest cavities. They do not dig their own holes; instead, they rely on large dead limbs or trunks, especially the holes excavated by Northern Flickers or other woodpeckers. Studies in Arizona found that over 90% of trogon nests were in sycamore or cottonwood snag holes within 300 meters of water. Thus, intact riparian corridors with healthy canopy trees are essential. Even where water can dry up in summer, trogons often roost near moist microhabitats.

Altitude-wise, in the southern U.S. they breed mostly between 1,000 and 2,000 m in the sky-island ranges. In Mexico they are found from sea level up to around 2,800 m in some mountain valleys – again favoring the mesic microhabitats. They avoid open desert and coastal lowlands lacking trees, and also avoid humid rainforest interior. In summary, think of this bird’s habitat as “semi-arid woodland edges near water”: streamside oak–sycamore galleries feeding into pine–oak or mixed forest, often in a canyon on a mountain slope.

Behavior

Elegant Trogons are generally quiet and sedentary birds, leading a relatively secretive life in the forest midstory. They often remain very still on a perch for minutes at a time, shifting only their heads as they scan for food. When they do move, it’s usually a swift, direct flight to a nearby perch or a short hover to snatch fruit. Their flight alternates bouts of rapid wingbeats with glides. The characteristic posture is upright and stiff: the body is held erect, the tail extends straight down, and the bird seems almost built for vertical perching rather than long flights.

They are territorial during breeding season. Male trogons defend a piece of canyon roughly half a kilometer or more in length. The male’s primary display is vocal: a repeated croaking “co-ack! co-ack!” (often written ko-ah, ko-ah or a low barking kum kum). He may perch low in the undergrowth or inside the mouth of a cavity and call; this can be startling because the deep croak carries far in a still canyon. Tail-waving is another display: a male will raise or wag his tail upward as he puffs up his chest and calls, a behavior thought to signal dominance to rival trogons. (Researchers have noted that such tail-flagging by trogons may even warn predators that they have been spotted and give away an ambush – a quirky adaptation!). Females are generally quieter and often respond to the male’s lead.

During non-breeding periods, Elegant Trogons tend to remain in pairs or small family groups if young are still present. They do not join large mixed flocks or migrate in flocks. Nocturnally they roost in dark cover, often in oak or pine trees away from the nest site once the breeding cycle is done. Despite their bright colors, trogons can be very hard to see; one of the surest signs of their presence is simply hearing that barking call echo from the canyon walls.

Feeding

Elegant Trogons are omnivores with a strong preference for large insects and soft fruits. During the breeding season they require a protein-rich diet, so adult and nestling trogons eat mainly insects. Common prey includes big arthropods such as grasshoppers, katydids, walking sticks, giant caterpillars, moths, dragonflies and dragonfly larvae, and spiders. On forest trails one might see a trogon suddenly dart out and hover to snatch a moth off foliage, then swoop back to its perch. The bill is hooked and serrated, perfect for plucking prey or fruit off branches. Both sexes often hunt by “sit-and-wait”: perching very still in mid-story until an insect moves, then snapping out. They also hover briefly in front of berry clusters to pluck them.

In late summer and fall, fruit becomes an important part of the diet. Elegant Trogons relish small, soft fruits – wild grapes, mistletoe berries, wild cherries, figs, and chokecherries are favorites. They may also eat Sumac berries, hackberry fruits, or hawthorn. A trogon will perch near a fruiting vine, suck it off and swallow whole, or hover to pick a berry. Unlike some fruit-eating birds, trogons do not store fruits but eat them as they go. The red coloring of the belly likely comes from carotenoid pigments in fruits. Occasionally one finds a trogon has swallowed a small lizard or salamander, but vertebrates are rarely taken.

This diet mix of insects and fruit reflects an adaptation to seasonal abundance. During the dry spring, trogons rely on insects; when forests green up and fruit ripens in late summer, they switch to berries (which also helps them put on fat before migration south). Experiments in Arizona showed that in drought years with few insects, trogons bred poorly or delayed nesting – clearly linking their breeding success to prey availability.

Breeding

Elegant Trogons are seasonal breeders in the north. In Arizona, they arrive around April and start nesting soon after. By late May through July, eggs and chicks are in the cavities. Each pair defends a territory and exhibits courtship behaviors: the male will call persistently and flick his tail to attract the female, even trying to coax her into prospective nest cavities.

Trogons are secondary cavity nesters. They cannot excavate wood, so they appropriate holes made by woodpeckers (especially Northern Flickers) or enlarge natural cavities in soft rotten wood. The chosen nest is typically a dead limb or snag of a large tree, often a sycamore or cottonwood near water. Multiple studies found that over half of Elegant Trogon nests were in sycamore holes. The cavity entrances range from about 2 to 6 meters (7–20 feet) high, with the typical Arizona nest about 25 feet off the ground. Inside the hole, parents may clear some wood chips but generally do not add a formal nest lining – the eggs are laid on the bare wood floor, sometimes on a thin pad of debris.

After mating, the female lays one egg per day (unlike some cavity-nesters that lay all at once). Both adults incubate: typically the female at night and midday, the male in mornings and afternoons. Incubation spans roughly three weeks. The eggs hatch asynchronously (often a day apart). Nestlings are altricial (naked and helpless) and both parents feed them copious insects. Adults bring mainly insects to the nestlings – the diet shifts back to high-protein fare for growing chicks. Observations show parents sometimes feed mostly male chicks after the young start leaving – interestingly, adult males tend to continue raising sons while females care for daughters once the chicks depart. By about 20–25 days after hatching the young trogons fledge, though they remain reliant on parents for a time.

Elegant Trogons typically have only one brood per season. The northern breeders usually fledge the young by late summer and depart south in early autumn. (In southern populations there may be a longer breeding period or even two broods per year under ideal conditions.) Because suitable nest cavities are a limiting resource, trogons often compete with other species like flycatchers, owls, or even chipmunks for holes. One study noted that some Arizona trogons actively evicted earlier nesters (such as Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers) to take over a good cavity.

Threats

The Elegant Trogon faces several threats, especially at the northern edge of its range. Foremost among them is habitat loss and alteration. Because trogons depend on canyon woodlands with large cavity trees, any removal of riparian forest or old snags can devastate nesting opportunities. In Mexico and Central America, deforestation for cattle, agriculture or logging can fragment trogon habitat. In Arizona and New Mexico, threats include water diversion (drying up seeps and creeks), grazing impacts that reduce streamside vegetation, and urban development encroaching on canyon bottoms. Overgrazing by livestock can degrade the undergrowth and young trees, while fire suppression or altered fire regimes can reduce the long-term renewal of healthy forests.

Climate change and drought are also critical concerns. Elegant Trogons live in some of the driest inhabited forests on earth, and severe droughts spell trouble. Recent research has shown a strong link between monsoon rains and trogon numbers: poor summer rains mean fewer caterpillars and cicadas, so nestlings starve. Indeed, surveys in Arizona documented historic lows of trogon counts during multi-year droughts. Prolonged drought may push trogons to skip breeding or abandon marginal canyons. Warmer overall temperatures could also shift suitable habitat upslope, shrinking the remaining range. In short, climate-driven loss of riparian moisture is perhaps the single biggest factor behind the recent decline of the U.S. trogon population.

Another threat is nest disturbance. Because trogons nest in visible cavities along trails and picnic areas, curious hikers or birders can inadvertently flush a nesting pair. Troops of onlookers clambering to spot a trogon can cause the birds to leave the nest temporarily, exposing eggs or chicks to predators or heat. Numerous anecdotes record trogons abandoning nests after too many people peered into holes. In fact, in Arizona the main predator of nests may often be humans! Conservationists recommend keeping a respectful distance and even temporarily closing sensitive trails in peak nesting months.

Finally, because they rely on trees for nesting, trogons are vulnerable to any decline in cavity-making woodpeckers. If flicker populations or other large woodpeckers crash (due to disease, pesticide, or habitat change), then fewer fresh holes are excavated for trogons to use. Invasive plant species that thicken underbrush can also alter insect communities, indirectly reducing the trogons’ food. Predation by jays or snakes is a natural risk, but currently the larger human and climate factors dominate the concern.

Migration

While most of the Elegant Trogon’s range is non-migratory, the northern birds perform a short migration. Mexican trogons that nest in Arizona and New Mexico move south each fall, retreating into central and southern Mexico for the winter. These migrants typically arrive in the U.S. by late April or early May, often just as oak and sycamore leaves are flushing. They spend the breeding months in their sky-island canyons, and as early as August some individuals start heading back south. By October virtually all have left Arizona. Intriguingly, a few very hardy trogons – usually one or two males – sometimes overwinter along desert rivers in southern Arizona if there is water, but this is exceptional. The rest of the species is sedentary: trogons in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, etc., stay in their home forests year-round, though they may move from higher elevations down to low hills in the dry season.

In migration, Elegant Trogons are completely silent except for the occasional mellow croak. They travel alone or in pairs – never in large flocks – and the journey is on the scale of hundreds of miles, not thousands. Satellite tracking is lacking, but we know from banding and observations that Arizona birds mostly return to the same canyons each spring. Juvenile trogons from Arizona may wander more widely in fall, sometimes showing up in unexpected locales in New Mexico or west Texas, suggesting that inexperienced young birds explore new territories before returning north.

Unique Adaptations

Elegant Trogons exhibit several adaptations suited to their lifestyle. Their heterodactyl feet (with toes arranged 1-2 forward, 3-4 back) allow a secure grip on horizontal branches, effectively giving them a two-pronged “gripping hand” to hold tight in the canopy. This toe arrangement is unique to trogons. Their stout, serrated bills are adapted for a mixed diet; the tooth-like edges make it easy to pluck berries and catch wiggling prey. Structurally, the brightly colored green in their plumage is not a simple pigment but arises from microscopic feather structures that reflect light – an evolutionary innovation that yields that lustrous emerald sheen.

Trogons also have specialized behavior adaptations. They often perch with their tail cocked up slightly and will sway or lower it when agitated, a body-language signal. Their ears are sensitive to low-frequency sounds, helping them detect the faintest insect rustlings. Unlike many tropical fruit-eaters, Elegant Trogons can hover briefly to take berries – a skill not all trogons have, allowing them to glean fruit that isn’t on a perchable branch. Finally, the male’s vivid plumage is thought to be a sexual display; only a bird in good condition can produce such iridescence, so a bright male signals fitness to a potential mate.

Conservation Efforts

On both sides of the border, people are now taking steps to protect the Elegant Trogon and its habitat. In Arizona, birding organizations (like the Tucson Bird Alliance/Audubon) have been running annual spring surveys for over a decade to monitor trogon numbers and identify key canyons. These “citizen science” efforts have not only yielded important data (such as the worrying drop in 2025) but also raised public awareness. The Arizona Important Bird Areas program has formally recognized the trogon’s sky islands as critical areas. Land managers in the Coronado National Forest and Sky Island region are increasingly mindful of protecting riparian woodlands, controlling invasive weeds, and avoiding heavy recreational impact in known nesting zones.

In Mexico and Central America, preserving mature pine–oak and gallery forests helps the trogons too. International partnerships like the American Bird Conservancy’s “Bring Back the Birds” initiative are working to improve corridors and coffee-farm bird habitats. While no species-specific captive breeding is planned (and unlikely needed given the large overall numbers), work with broader coalitions on forest conservation indirectly benefits the trogon. Ornithologists recommend some targeted actions: installing signposts to keep hikers away from nesting trees, maintaining dead snags instead of clearing them, and even placing artificial nest boxes in experimental settings (though wild trogons rarely use them successfully).

Research continues on climate resilience: scientists have linked trogon breeding success to seasonal rainfall and are urging that preserving riparian water flow (for example, by limiting groundwater pumping) could mitigate drought impacts. In New Mexico, officials have set an explicit goal to increase the population by 50% in 30 years through habitat restoration in the Peloncillo Mountains. Across its range, the Elegant Trogon benefits from protected areas like Biosphere Reserves and national parks in Mexico and Central America, which conserve large tracts of its forest habitat.

Cultural appreciation also plays a role. Often dubbed “the most sought-after bird in Arizona,” the Elegant Trogon draws birders and eco-tourists into these fragile canyons. That tourism revenue and public interest can translate into local stewardship. Trogons, along with their flashy cousins the quetzals, have a minor place in local tradition as symbols of the lush forest. (The very word “quetzal” means “precious” or “sacred” in some Mesoamerican languages, reflecting how these birds’ brilliant greens were valued.) By highlighting the trogon’s plight, conservationists hope to tap into a broader love for these charismatic creatures – helping ensure that the croaks of the Elegant Trogon continue to echo through North American canyons for generations to come.