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  Profile

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  In flight

Trogons & Quetzals

Masked Trogon

Trogon personatus

• uncommon
• 35 km/h
• Least Concern

Sits motionless in the cloud forest canopy, then snatches insects mid-air. Patient carrier, precise delivery.

Population

Not quantified by BirdLife/IUCN; described as common to fairly common across much of its Andean/tepui range with a stable population trend (no numeric global figure published)

Habitat

Humid montane and cloud forest (interior and edge), including stunted/elfin forest at higher elevations; typically found in the understory to mid-story, roughly 1,000-3,000 m elevation

Fun fact

Both sexes excavate their own nest cavity by boring into the soft, rotting wood of a standing dead tree trunk (usually under 10 m up), rather than using a pre-existing hole, and lay a small 2-egg clutch inside.

Range

Andes of South America from western Venezuela and Colombia south through Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to northwestern Argentina, plus disjunct populations on the tepuis of Venezuela, Guyana, and northern Brazil

Diet

Omnivorous — insects and other arthropods captured by sallying from a perch, plus fruit; regularly joins mixed-species foraging flocks

Size

0.26 m