Draft results from the May 2025 Elegant Trogon survey of five sky island IBAs
For the May survey our total is 31 Elegant Trogons, the full details are below. We are planning on a July follow up to see if monsoon moisture causes more Elegant Trogons to arrive later than normal in a dry year.
We had many routes that had a zero count this year for the first time since starting these surveys in 2013. The lack of rain and the toasted habitat is very likely to be the main culprit for our new record-setting low count this year of 30 total trogons.
The behaviour of the male Elegant Trogons seemed strange this year with several instances of males calling once, sometimes very early, and then never being detected again all morning. From what I experienced during surveys, it seems that some males were roaming over huge distances maybe because there were fewer males to bump into so they could travel through huge territories. They may also have been desperately roaming looking for females. I suspect both motivations were at play for some of these males. I also point this out as there were some territories where a trogon wasn’t detected by the survey team but was by another team that traveled through the area before 6 to reach their route. I want to emphasize that this happening falls right in line with behaviour I observed on several surveys. The team that was on a route starting at 6, per protocol, didn’t miss the trogon – it had already moved on.
I am also planning on organizing a July follow up where you can sign up for a route to survey in a span of dates (you choose the date convenient for you) and we can look into the idea that some trogons may arrive later in the year once the summer rains begin. I’ll send more info out on this soon.
Here is a summary of the results:
Atascosa Highlands: 1 male
Patagonia Mountains: 4 males
Santa Rita Mountains: 5 males, 1 female
Huachuca Mountains: 15 total (2 pairs, 10 males, 1 female)
Chiricahua Mountains 5 total (1 pair, one probable pair, 1 male)
This is a total of 31 Elegant Trogons for May surveys of 2025 – our previous low count was 68 in 2021
2025 Elegant Trogon Results Map is here
If you want to compare our results this year to our previous results since 2013, my blog post here from last year has a great summary of our results from all years.
The fun photos shared by the amazing surveyors over all five surveys are here in a Google Album online
