Citreoline Trogon: a bird endemic to western Mexico

Citreoline Trogon
1 February 2025, El Jorullo, Jalisco, Mexico

We saw this Citreoline Trogon after walking across the 470 metre long suspension bridge at El Jorullo a few miles inland from Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. We had to wait for a while because Canopy River park is used for all sorts of outdoor activities and several convoys of all-terrain vehicles were heading in the opposite direction. The suitability for such vehicles makes it, so it is claimed, the longest vehicular suspension bridge in the world. The whole area has been owned and operated since 1940 by an association of local foresters; the vehicles and zip wire etc came later, after 2005. The Sierra Madre mountains provide a backdrop to the protected area of forest while the Cuale River runs way below the bridge.

Jorullo Suspension Bridge

The Citreoline Trogon (Trogon citreolus) is endemic to the woods and forests of western Mexico. They nest by digging into the nests of tree termites. This one was eating berries and at various times of year eat either or both fruit and insects.

From the photograph at high magnification it can be seen that the trogon has two toes visible at the front. Does that make it a zygodactyl like parrots and woodpeckers? Well, no. It does have two toes at the front and two at the back but in trogons digits 3 and 4 face forward while 1 and 2 face back. In zygodactyly, 2 and 3 face forward and 1 and 4 back. Trogons are thus described as heterodactylous.

There were mammalian delights too along the trail through the forest beyond the suspension bridge but they are for later.