Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Although the female gartered trogon’s plumage lacks the electric blues and greens of the male, the yellows of her belly pair nicely with the violet greys of her head, breast, and back.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to admire a female gartered trogon during our family’s March 2023 trip to Belize; I only encountered a male, but I’m sure a female was in the area. Perhaps she was engaging in a favorite pastime of trogons, “anting” – which is basically an ant bath. The birds allow themselves to be covered with ant species that release formic acid when threatened. Researchers still don’t know why the birds “ant.” Do the acids and chemicals the ants produce help control feather parasites or bacteria? Or maybe the secretions supplement the bird preen oils? Or is it a pleasure response, a stimulus of the bird’s skin? Or, as some biologists contend, is it all about making the insects edible, allowing them time to expend all of their distasteful defensive chemicals before the bird eats them? Based on the papers I’ve read, the insecticide/miticide hypothesis seems convincing, but that may only be a piece of the puzzle. As always, nature abounds with humbling and exciting unknowns.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.