African Wildlife & Environment Issue 79

BIRDING

General habits and information The Narina Trogon Apaloderma narina belongs to the family Trogonidae and is known to turn its back on observers when approached, to conceal the bright red chest and thus is seldom spotted in a dense forest habitat. A good field character is the flash of white rectrices (tail quill feathers) in flight, also white underwing during their courtship display. The meaning of the generic name Apaloderma is ‘delicate skin’, a name given to the genus because it has a very thin skin that tears easily when skinned, noted by the early bird collectors. There are two other species of Apaloderma in Africa. The most common call (of the male Narina Trogon) is a grating, low repeated ventriloquial hoot " hroo-hoo, hroo-hoo, hroo-hoo " rising to a crescendo. At each hoot, the tail is wagged slightly forward and is given in defending his territory or attracting mates. The male's bare, blue-green throat patch is expanded when calling. Both sexes may fluff out the breast feathers in display. The Narina Trogon can be 'called up' to respond to mimicking the call during this period, and therefore can be more easily located in the dense forest foliage. This bird also often calls when rain is imminent or has just fallen. During the non-breeding season this bird is virtually silent. Trogons have an anatomical peculiarity in that of all the zygodactylous birds with the two- forward two-backward toe arrangement, they are The Narina Trogon is largely green and red, with males being more brightly coloured. This beautiful bird has a medium length of 32–34 cm. Despite its bright colours. it blends in well with the dappled light of the forest and is actually very difficult to spot, as these trogons can remain motionless for a long period at a time. Narina Trogon THE JEWEL OF THE FORESTS JohnWesson

Photograph: Albert Froneman

Distribution

50 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 79 (2021)