Harpactes wardi
The Ward's Trogon, *Harpactes wardi*, is a breathtakingly vibrant member of the Trogonidae family, distinguished by extreme sexual dimorphism. Males are spectacular, measuring 35-38 cm in length (with a tail of 18-20 cm) and weighing 83-110g, featuring a striking black head offset by a broad pale blue supercilium, a deep scarlet chest and belly, crimson back, and black wings finely vermiculated with white. The female, while more subdued, is equally beautiful with an olive-brown head and upper...
Resides in subtropical and tropical moist montane evergreen and mixed broadleaf forests, typically found at elevations between 1,500 and 3,200 meters.
Primarily insectivorous, feeding on large insects such as beetles, mantises, stick insects, caterpillars, and grasshoppers, as well as spiders. It also supplements its diet with small fruits and berries, captured mainly through sallying from a perch.
Ward's Trogon is a diurnal, largely solitary bird, often observed sitting motionless and upright on a horizontal perch within the mid-story of dense forest for extended periods. It employs a 'sallying' foraging strategy, darting out from its perch to snatch insects in flight or glean them from fo...
Ward's Trogon is a non-migratory resident species found across a fragmented range in the Eastern Himalayas and parts of Southeast Asia. Its distribution includes northeast India (specifically Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim), Bhutan, and eastern Nepal. Further east, populations extend into southern ...
Near Threatened
- Ward's Trogon is named after Frank Kingdon Ward, a British botanist and explorer, rather than an ornithologist. - Males possess one of the most striking color combinations among all trogon species, making them a 'jewel of the Himalayas'. - Despite their vibrant plumage, they are notoriously dif...