Trogon chionurus
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The white-tailed trogon (Trogon chionurus) is a species of bird in the trogon family. It is found in tropical humid forests of the Chocó, ranging from Panama, through western Colombia, to western Ecuador. It was formerly considered a subspecies of T. viridis, which is widespread in South America east of the Andes, but under the English name white-tailed trogon (a name now reserved for T. chionurus, leaving T. viridis as the green-backed trogon).
This relatively large trogon is 28 to 30 centimetres (11 to 12 in) long. As most trogons, it is strongly sexually dimorphic. In the male the head and upper breast are dark blue (appears blackish in poor light), and the back is green, becoming bluer on the rump. The lower underparts are orange-yellow. The wings are black, vermiculated with white. The undertail is almost entirely white with only a very narrow black base to each feather. The complete eye-ring is pale bluish. The female white-tailed trogon resembles the male, but has a grey back, head and breast, and rather indistinct black-and-white barring mainly to the inner webs of each tail feather (less on outer webs).
For comparison, the similar but smaller gartered trogon... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utría National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | San Lorenzo Protected Forest | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 3 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 5 | Bastimentos Island National Marine Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Farallones de Cali National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Trogon sighting in Darién National Park on a given day, based on 158 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 16th most-seen of the 397 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a White-tailed Trogon in Darién National Park on a given day, against about 10% in July–August and October, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-tailed Trogon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate White-tailed Trogon sightings, Darién National Park ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Utría National Natural Park (Colombia, about 50%) and San Lorenzo Protected Forest (Panama, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Trogon
The closest relatives of the White-tailed Trogon that you can see in Darién National Park (genus Trogon, New World Trogons) are Black-tailed Trogon (about 20%), Gartered Trogon (about 20%) and Slaty-tailed Trogon (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-tailed Trogon is recorded against all the birds logged in Darién National Park (158 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
