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CEIBA Research, Guyana (Image 16)
Violaceous trogon (Trogon violaceus). These birds can be found in moist, tropical forests in southeastern Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, the Amazon basin, the Guianas and Trinidad. They make their nests in a wasp, ant or termite nest, or in a hole in a rotten tree, usually laying two or three white eggs.
Violaceous trogons eat insects and small fruit. Although they have the capability to fly fast, they usually prefer flying short distances and perch upright and motionless.
Trogons have distinctive male and female plumages, with soft, often colourful, feathers. They are fairly small birds, averaging 23 centimeters in length and weighing about 56 grams. They very much resemble the white-tailed trogon, but the latter is larger and has a whiter tail.
This image was taken as part of research centered at the CEIBA Biological Center, Inc. in Guyana, by Professor Godfrey Bourne of the department of biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Bourne is currently program director of the Behavioral Systems Cluster, Division of Integrative Organismal Biology at the National Science Foundation.
Bourne is personally involved in administrating the CEIBA Biological Center Inc. as a nonprofit research, education and conservation field station in Guyana. Research opportunities for postdoctoral associates, graduate and undergraduate students are available in Guyana on a diversity of organisms.
This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. [One of several related images. See next image Here.] (Date of Image: 2004-2006)
Credit: Photo by Godfrey R. Bourne
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