Elegant Trogon

On Saturday I took a bird watching trip with some people from my church to Madera Canyon.  I am a lousy bird watcher as I never remember the names of the birds, and often find myself lifting my binoculars to scan the hills in the distance for deer.  Saturday was a marvelous success though as we spotted this Elegant Trogon.  We walked a little over a quarter mile up the Old Baldy trail and were just about to give up when we heard him call.  The call came from down the trail so we backtracked a hundred yards.  Soon he called again and we knew he was close.  Everyone scanned the dense oaks off the trail.  Then one of our group spotted his red chest.  She pointed him out to everyone.  My friend Mike Jones took this picture.  The Elegant Trogon is high on every Bird Watcher's List.  In the U.S. they only appear in the southern mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico.  I am very lucky to have seen one on only my second bird watching trip.