Diet

• Omnivorous, feeding primarily on large insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and cicadas.

• Also eats spiders, small lizards, frogs, small snakes, nestling birds, and a variety of fruits and berries.

• Hunts by watching from a perch before swooping down to capture prey on the ground or in low vegetation.

Range

• Endemic to western Mexico, occurring from southern Sonora south along the Pacific slope through Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, and western Oaxaca.

• Common in the Zihuatanejo region, where it is a year-round resident.

• Inhabits tropical dry forests, semi-deciduous forests, wooded ravines, forest edges, second-growth woodland, and shaded plantations, generally from sea level to about 2,100 m.

• Often remains motionless in the forest understory and is more frequently detected by its deep, resonant calls.

Male / Female

• Male: Green body with a distinctive rufous (chestnut) crown, black eye mask bordered with turquoise, blue eyebrows, and a long tail ending in characteristic "racquet" tips formed by bare feather shafts. Slightly larger than the female.

• Female: Very similar in plumage but generally smaller with a shorter tail and racquets.

• Sexes cannot be reliably distinguished in the field except by subtle size differences or behaviour during breeding.

Size

• Length: 37–43 cm (14.5–17 in), including the long tail.

• Wingspan: 45–50 cm (17.7–19.7 in)

• Weight: 120–170 g