Sounds and Vocal Behavior

The song of Slaty-tailed Trogon is a steady deliberate series of cow or cue notes, considerably lower pitched and slower than the song of White-tailed Trogon (Trogon chionurus), but very similar to the song of Black-tailed Trogon (Trogon melanurus) (Hilty and Brown 1986) ; Willis and Eisenmann (1979), however, describe song of Black-tailed Trogon as higher in pitch than that of Slaty-tailed. The song of Slaty-tailed also is described as "koh-koh-koh…" or "ka-ka-ka…" at 10 notes per 2.5-4 seconds, and rarely a rapid clucking "kohkohkoh…" at 10 notes per 1.5 seconds (Howell and Webb 1995) or as a deep full-throated "wuk, wuk, wuk …" at the rate of about two notes per second, and not accelerated into a trill (Skutch 1972).

For a representative audio recording with sonogram, see audio

Calls include a quiet clucking huh-huh-huh-huh and a hard, chuckling chatter (Howell and Webb 1995) and, in response to calls of the opposite sex, a softer clack (Skutch 1999).

Additional audio recordings of vocalizations of Slaty-tailed Trogon can be heard at Macaulay Library, at xeno-canto.org, and at Internet Bird Collection.

None reported.