An Elegant Morning

An Elegant Morning

On a late April morning, a glint of scarlet and iridescent green are glimpsed through the leaves. Soft yelps of a male Elegant Trogon filters through the mist. He issues his invitation for a mate to visit and inspect his selection of a nest site in the dead snag. It’s an ideal location, an abandoned woodpecker cavity on the underside of a leaning trunk. Protected from the rain, the entrance just the right diameter and the interior offering ample room for incubation and growing young.

He increases the volume of his monotonous “yank-yank-yank” love song after hearing the softer answer of a female from across the Rio. He’s convinced that the snag offers the perfect nest site and is determined to convince his prospective, though reticent, mate. He flies swiftly across the Rio in hopes of wooing her with the intensity of his scarlet breast and beautiful iridescence of his green back. Quickly, he returns to his perch, his calls more insistent.

In only three wing beats, his intended floats across the Rio. Almost immediately, he slips into his selected nest cavity, as if to convince her of its perfection. She watches patiently. Everything about her seems softer, the scarlet a hue lighter and only on her undertail coverts, her back a soft brown, even the cream colored “tear drop” behind her eye. She seems interested, but flies back across the Rio to the security of the big Cedar tree.

He emerges, and finding her gone, resumes his yelps in hopes of calling her back across the Rio. She returns and the ceremony continues. He ducks into the cavity and she flies across the Rio.

Sensing that my presence may be interfering, I quietly move back, wanting to continue observing but not wanting to interrupt the activity. At 1:15, four and a half hours after I began watching this love affair develop; she succumbs to his seduction and accepts the abandoned woodpecker cavity as her nest site. She had returned once again and watched as he entered. Flying to the opening, she peers in and for a couple minutes, they exchange muted yelps. She flutters down to a perch and he pokes his head out. His bright red eye ring and glowing yellow bill contrasting with the darkness of the cavity.

He pops out, dropping down to sit nearby. She flies to the entrance, peering in, examining the prospective nest site. Her coloration blends beautifully with the earth tones of the snag. In fact, if I hadn’t been watching intently, it would have been difficult to see her.

Suddenly, she slips through the opening, yelping quietly, it’s evident that she agrees with his decision.