Trogons are part of a “basal radiation” of bird species, which is a fancy way of saying they are ancient, the trunk from which other evolutionary branches reach forward. Current research hints at the shape and essence of this lineage, though the exact connections remain murky. Even the clearest water obscures our vision when it is fifty million years deep, where the earliest trogon fossils are found. Still, something about these birds, beyond just their stunning iridescent plumage, sets them apart; some important signal penetrates those depths. Though they tend to sit motionless, they command one’s attention, as if their separation from other birds in time somehow draws them into sharper relief. As they slowly roll their heads to gaze at you through eyes fixed in their sockets, they silently convey a sense of that unbroken stream that connects now with antiquity, all manifested in a thing of tropical beauty.
NORTHERN BLACK-THROATED TROGON (Trogon tenellus)