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Malaysia Birding Trip ( Trogons)

 This blog post I will be sharing about Trogons, a family of birds we saw in Sarawak. Trogons are so special they are put in their own order, with Quetzals and other South American Trogons. Trogons are distantly related to woodpeckers, rollers, kingfishers and hornbills. Of the five species present in Borneo, we luckily saw three, all seen in Kubah National Park, of course with the help of Julianna.

Female Scalet-rumped Trogon
First I will talk about the Scarlet-rumped Trogon, which I saw on the first day in Kubah. All three of these trogons look similar, but this trogon doesn’t have a white band across its neck, and has a scarlet rump instead of a yellow one (hence the name). Is very adaptable to different habitats, from mangrove forests to dipterocarp forests. Mostly an insectivore, it will eat all sorts of bugs and beetles. This is a pretty common species in Borneo, but can be a bit difficult to observe. Usually its location is betrayed by its calls, and once spotted it is unmistakable. While we were up on this hill, Julianna heard the call, and because she had played it many times before, I knew it was a kind of trogon. After calling it once, Julianna started to scan the trees for it and sure enough, it was there hanging out on a  branch in plain sight, but it took a while for me to see it. It was a female, so a lot duller than the male, but still pretty enough. The only more disappointing thing was I only got a couple of good pictures of it, and even those you can’t see its face, which is kind of a bummer for me.

Diard's Trogon ( Sorry about the low quality of the picture. I had to use manual focus)

The Red-naped Trogon is a lot bigger than the Scarlet-rumped, and has a beautiful red belly, nape, and a bright blue eye ring. This bird is a lot rarer than the Scarlet-rumped Trogon, but I think the Scarlet-rumped is a lot more elegant and beautiful, maybe because it dosen't have a much bare skin as the other trogons. The Red-naped Trogon lives mainly in lowland forest, and sometimes montane forests. This bird eats spiders, insects etc. This particular bird we saw on the second day in Kubah, and I was super frustrated by it. We were on a board-walk around a frog pond when we heard a trogon calling. Of course Julianna knew what it was, so she started to play the bird sound as we rushed out onto the trail. After calling back and forth a couple of times, Dad spotted the bird, and excitedly tried to show me where the bird was. Much to my dismay, I just couldn’t find the trogon! Then suddenly the bird flew straight over our heads and into the forest next to the pond. Hoping to get a good look, I ran over and started furiously scanning the trees, but still with no luck. Just when I was about to give up, the Red-naped Trogon flew onto a branch right in front of me! I quickly started to snap pictures but not a single one turned out! I was very disappointed.

A barely visible Diard's Trogon

The last trogon, the Diard’s Trogon is probably the most weird-looking of the three. It has a plum purple head and a red underbody with a pinkish nape. Its favored habitat is similar to the Red-naped: lowland to montane forests. Different from the other Trogons though, this one eats fruit and insects. One thing I should mention is that trogons eat stick insects, which are very bizarre insects, some species have spikes on them, while some look exactly like small twigs. This bird we saw not long after the disappointing Red-naped Trogon, after we took a slight rest at a pavilion. We were starting to make our way back and had not gone 50 meters when we heard the Diard’s Trogon call. While Julianna was playing the bird call back, I was scanning the trees for the Trogon. Then, I just happened upon the trogon, even though only its head was visible, it was enough to get a diagnostic shot.

This is a very intriguing type of bird that I hope to see more of in the future. 

 



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