Elegant Trogan Perched In Oak Tree

People come from all over the world to see the Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans). I've hiked the Huachuca Mountains since 1972, and I've never seen one. I knew they were out there, somewhere in the middle and upper elevations of the range, but seeing as I spend most of my time in the lower elevations I didn't think I'd ever encounter one while out on my daily hikes.

Last year, during April and May, I was watching a Sharp-shinned hawk nest as the chicks were brought up and fledged. Toward the end of April, I started hearing a raucous racket in the canyon I was in, sounding much like the bird calls you hear in those Jungle movies.

One day, I finally caught sight of the bird making all the noise. I captured its calls on my cell phone and later that evening confirmed it was an Elegant Trogon. I was surprised at the identification, for I had found the bird in habitat that I thought was lower than it should be in. I even confirmed on one of the bird sites that there hadn't been any observations of the bird in this canyon.

I spent the next several weeks tracking this bird up and down the canyon, and on one occasion, out into the Juniper grasslands, trying to get an image of it with my D800 and 150-600mm lens, but whenever I got close enough to frame the shot, off it would go. I never got the photo I wanted that year, nor one that I would try to pass off as a Trogon in general.

I was thinking about my encounter with the Trogon this morning as I hiked up the same canyon. On the way back down I was startled by that distinctive Jungle bird call and immediately started scanning the oak and pine tree tops for that bright red chest. I found him perched in an oak tree right in front of me.

I spent 20 minutes taking photos of a very cooperative bird. It would flit about from limb to limb, and occasionally leap up into the air to grab something off some leaves at the end of a branch, but for the most part it sat still and kept a watchful eye on me.

I do wish that I could have got these images with my D800 and 150-600mm, but even though the P900 generates terrible images, I'm glad I had that 2000mm lens to get up-close-and-personal with this bird.

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