Diet and Foraging

Like its congeners, Slaty-tailed Trogon diet consists of fruit and arthropods. It has been observed consuming small berries and flesh-covered, or "arillate", seeds, mostly of small to medium-sized palm fruits (Skutch 1972). Predominant fruits eaten are of nutmegs (Virola species), mangabe tree (Didymopanax morototoni), Coussarea, Hamelia, and Guatteria (Stiles and Skutch 1989, Howe 1981). They also eat caterpillars, mature insects, and perhaps even small lizards (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Of three sampled Slaty-tailed Trogon stomachs, two contained arthropods only, and one contained a mixture of arthropods and fruit (Remsen et al. 1993). The stomach of one female contained two large locusts, two sphingid caterpillars, fragments of a cerambycid beetle, and drupe remains (Wetmore 1968).