Kow kow kow. I don't know where she's gone but I'm sure getting tired of sitting in here. Yes, I know I suggested this cavity, but it's a real pain to sit in here hour after hour. These eggs will be fine until she returns, heck the temperature hasn't changed a bit since she left. Kow kow kow. Every afternoon I let her do this to me, boy am I a slow learner! She wouldn't know if I went outside and just hung around. Besides she said she'd be right back and it's been almost five hours. Kow kow kow

According to Richard Cachor Taylor in Trogons of the Arizona Borderlands the soft kow kow kow of the male Elegant Trogon is used to coax females up and down the canyon. According to Taylor "It appears to literally mean 'come here', although I know it is rank scientific heresy to credit a wild bird with this sort of conscious thought". Prior to learning Taylor's translation I sat watching a trogon nest south of Tucson and got the impression I was hearing the man of the house softly calling to his mate, "Come here".

I found this nesting cavity in Madera Canyon about mid day in early June 2001. Madera Canyon is located about 30 miles south of Tucson, AZ in the Santa Rita Mountains. This area is perfect for trogons and numerous other species of wildlife with several hiking trails provided by the Coronado National Forest for two legged critters. I arrived at the lower parking lot at 5:30AM. While unloading my camera gear, I heard the distinct call of a trogon directly overhead. Looking up, I saw a male trogon heading up the canyon. I quickly gathered my gear and started to follow his call. As I moved quietly through the creek bed, yes we have creeks that actually have water in them in southeastern Arizona, I could still hear the trogon moving up stream. The male was in view much of the time, calling continuously and moving about every fifteen to twenty minutes. As I sat by the trail watching him from 60 feet, several hikers passed by without even asking what I was watching so intently. Either they were extremely polite or whatever I was watching wasn't as important as their morning hike. After watching the trogon for several hours as he moved up and down the canyon past me, I retreated to a picnic table close to my truck and retrieved my lunch.

As I ate I could still hear him calling from a hundred feet up stream. With my lunch gone I sat back to read, only to be rudely disturbed by his call almost overhead. Looking up, I saw the trogon thirty feet away hanging onto the outer edge of a sycamore knot. As I watched, he pulled himself up and disappeared into a cavity in the knot. I had missed a great shot of him hanging there, worse yet, I never saw the female leave. The appropriate question for me was, "OK slick, what now?". The only thing I could do to get a picture would be to climb up the opposite bank of the creek without killing myself or, dare I say it, breaking my camera equipment. So I did, that is, climb the bank, not kill myself. After considerable effort, I reached an area with large boulders where I could set up a blind. With the blind and camera in place, I took my position behind the camera on a not so soft boulder. Shortly afterward I began to hear the soft but clear Kow Kow Kow.

Trogons are neo-tropical birds with a few migrating north from Mexico and Central America to breed in Arizona. This migration takes place in the spring, sometimes as early as March. Research by the Arizona Game & Fish Department found trogons scattered among four mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona, the Atascosa, Santa Rita, Huachuca, and Chiricahua Mountains.

Elegant Trogons are truly elegant. Males are multi-colored from their brown feet to their emerald green throat and back, with seven colors in between. The male has orange eye rings and a yellow bill which are highlighted by his black face. The breast is bright red with a white breast bar. The under tail is also white with black bars. His wings are gray with small black scallops. The final color feature is his upper tail, which is coppery or greenish depending on the light. Females are generally larger than males but not as colorful. Most of her body is gray to brown with off-white breast band and eye rings. The lower breast or belly is a pinkish red. A white cheek patch is located near the eye and resembles a filled in upside down question mark. The tail, however, is much bolder on the under side than the male. The black bars of the under tail are more defined and the coppery color of the upper tail may have resulted in the Trogon's first name, Coppery-tailed Trogon which was changed to Elegant Trogon in 1983. Trogons are a large bird being 11 to 12 inches in length. The upper portion of their stout yellow bill is serrated which helps in enlarging cavities they intend to occupy, not bad for eating bugs and berries either.

Whoa, what am I doing, I was telling you about trying to get a photo of an Elegant Trogon. If you want to know more about trogons, go buy a book. So I'm sitting there with a numb bumb trying to stay awake as the afternoon drags on. I'm not too bright and once again I proved it by looking at my watch hoping it was time to go home. However, it was now 2PM. I hadn't been in my blind an hour. The only sound was the occasional kow kow kow from inside the tree. As I watch, the nest-sitting daddy poked his head out of the hole, looked around, and then disappeared into the cavity. Just when I thought it was safe to go back to the truck, the guy decides to poke his head out just to keep me hooked. I could still hear his soft call, kow kow kow. I can't prove it but I'm sure I could hear him tapping his foot and asking himself, "Where is she?". After what seemed like forever and a half, I saw him poking his head and breast out of the nest. A quick look and flash, he was gone. Now you're asking yourself did he or didn't he get the picture? Yes he did, in fact three - time: 5:40PM.

Although the three shots I took of this Trogon are not as good as some I have taken, they are my favorites. This is by far the best looking nest cavity I have ever found and on top of that I have the male filling the hole as he prepared to leave.

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