Baird's Trogon

How to find it

Listen for its distinctive song, then scan the upper forest for perched birds or birds hovering at fruiting trees. Because it often perches high in tall rainforest trees, a scope helps. In hot lowland parks like Carara, arrive when the park opens and walk the trails early, since birds tend to sit quietly in dense foliage as the day heats up. The Laguna Meándrica trail and Sendero Las Aráceas are listed as good viewing trails there. At Esquinas one group moved back and forth to find a clear angle and then got good scope views of a singing male high in the canopy.

How to recognise it

Baird's Trogon is the only Costa Rican trogon with an orange-red belly and a pale eye ring in both sexes. Its tail pattern is also unique among the country's trogons.

The male:

- dull black face and throat

- rest of the head, chest and upper parts deep blue

- lower breast and belly orange to vermilion

- blue eye ring

- tail white underneath

- length about 28 cm

The female is mostly dark slate grey, with a blacker face and throat.

What it sounds like

Recording: Dan MacNeal, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It grabs fruit or insects from foliage with quick sideways sallies, without landing. Across its range it mostly eats fruit but also takes insects and sometimes small lizards. It is usually alone or in pairs, and sometimes forms family groups after breeding.

It often perches high in tall rainforest trees, and birds can be seen hovering to feed at fruiting trees in the upper forest. One operator says it also sits still and low in shade.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is fairly common in remaining forest patches in the lowlands and foothills of the southern Pacific slope, locally up to 1,200 m. Across its range it lives mainly in the interior canopy of humid rainforest, and it also uses forest edges, tall secondary forest and shady semi-open woodland. Its elevation range runs from sea level to 1,200 m. Carara and Corcovado National Parks, with large areas of mature forest, are good places to look.

When to see it

Trogons in Costa Rica in general call most often from February to July, which is when they are easiest to find. At Manuel Antonio one operator says this species is easiest in the December to April dry season and less reliable outside that window. Across its range it breeds from April to August, when pairs use nest holes in decaying trunks.

Similar birds

The Collared Trogon is similar in some ways, but Baird's has an orange-red belly and a pale eye ring, and no other Costa Rican trogon shares that combination. The Gartered Trogon has a more staccato call, a bluish eye ring and an unbarred tail, and it is a bird of forest edge. Telling Baird's from Black-throated Trogon needs a good look at plumage, not just a glimpse, which is a reason to use a scope.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Trogón Vientribermejo, meaning red-bellied trogon, and other Spanish sources also call it Trogón de Baird. The English name honours Spencer Fullerton Baird, a 19th-century naturalist and the first curator of the Smithsonian Institution.

Status and conservation

Listed as R-END on the AOCR list, it is rated Near Threatened because of its small range and ongoing forest loss.

Photography tips

It often sits still and low in shade, and a scope is the way to see the eye ring on a motionless bird. Because it also perches high in tall trees, expect to move around to find a clear angle.