Amazonian Trogon

The Amazonian Trogon, scientifically known as Trogon ramonianus, was discovered by two French ornithologists: Emile Deville (1824-1853) and Marc Athanase Parfait Oeillet Des Murs (1804-1878) in 1849. In Latin, ramus means branch and in Old French, ramon means broom. Did they want to make reference to the fact that our Amazonian Trogon is almost always seen perched on a branch, flicking its tail and sweeping the air? Trogon ramonianus was originally a subspecies of the Violet Trogon, although it was in 2010 that the SACC (South American Classification Committee) raised it to species status, something that apparently not everyone recognizes. It has all the characteristics of the Violet Trogon - a size of 23 to 25 cm - and its colors are only slightly different; its breast, throat and parotid area are black, its top of the head and nape are violet-blue, its beak is pale blue, and its orbital ring is yellow with a dark brown iris. Its chest is a more blue than violet blue color, compared to the Violet Trogon, with a barely visible white line between its chest and yellow belly. One of the distinguishing marks between the Violet and Amazonian Trogon is the absence of vermiculation on its coverts which are grey; its mantle and back have shades of blue-turquoise rather than green, though lighting can distort color perception. The female does not differ much from the female Violet Trogon, having a grey head with a pale blue beak whose culmen is marked by black, the eye is surrounded by two half white circles in the front and back, the breast, scapulars mantle and back are grey, and the coverts have distinct black and white horizontal vermiculations. Its three pairs of lower rectrices are white, with black marks in the centre in the shape of arrows, the points of which are turned downwards, and the exterior parts are striped with horizontal black lines.