Blue-crowned Trogon

The blue-crowned trogon is about 24 cm (9.4 in) long and weighs 39 to 63 g (1.4 to 2.2 oz). The male of the nominate subspecies has a blackish face and throat with an orange ring around the eye. The crown, sides of the neck, and breast are glossy greenish blue, the nape turquoise-green, and the back metallic bronzy green. The upperside of the tail is greenish blue and the underside has black and white bars. The folded wing has fine vermiculation that looks gray at a distance. The breast is separated from the rosy red belly and vent by a white band. The female is gray where the male is green and the belly is pinkish red. Instead of the orange ring around the eye there are white arcs before and after it. The underside of the tail has a different black and white pattern. The male of T. c. peruvianus has a bluish gloss to the bronzy green back, a much reduced white breast band, and narrower white bars on the undertail. The male T. c. behni's back is more intensely bronze than the nominate's, and the breast is greener. The male blue-crowned trogon's song is "a fast, evenly paced repetition of...'kow' [notes], lasting about 4-5 seconds and ending abruptly". Both sexes give a "churrr" call.

The blue-crowned trogon is found throughout the Amazon Basin south of the Amazon River and south and east from there as well. The nominate subspecies is found from Amazonian central Brazil east to the Atlantic Ocean. T. c. peruvianus is found in the Andean foothills of southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, and northwestern Bolivia and from there east into Amazonian Brazil as far as the Tapajós River. T. c. behni is found in eastern and southern Bolivia, southwestern Brazil, much of Paraguay, and northern Argentina. It inhabits a variety of landscapes across its large range. Forest types include várzea, gallery, tall secondary, and dry semi-deciduous. It occupies all levels from the understory to the canopy. It is also found in savanna woodland, dry palm forest, caatinga, and scrublands. In the northern part of its range it seldom occurs above 500 m (1,600 ft) of elevation but reaches as high as 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Argentina and 1,750 m (5,700 ft) in Bolivia.

The blue-crowned trogon's diet includes a wide variety of insects and spiders, and also fruits. It sometimes joins mixed-species foraging flocks.