Trogons are generally very colourful arboreal forest birds, with short rounded wings enabling great manoeuvrability amongst the trees. They rarely fly far but spend hours sitting motionless on a favoured perch from where they can spot an insect or lizard on the forest floor. Trogons are also found in tropical parts of Africa (3 sp.) and Asia (12 sp.), but not Australia.

The family includes a bird many consider to be one of the most beautiful in the world: the Resplendent Quetzal of central America.

Photographing them is always a challenge: although motionless they often sit high-up on a branch in a usually gloomy tropical forest. There is often a branch or twig in the way! My first views of the Resplendent Quetzal required a scope to see it well, but we were lucky to find one later at eye-level, in a wild avocado tree on a steep slope in a Costa Rican cloud-forest.