Resplendent Quetzal

The resplendent quetzal is widespread in the wet forests of the mountains of the Mexico and of the Central America until the Costa Rica, this splendid bird usually remains between 2.000 and 2.700 meters of altitude.

Aspect

It measures approximately 32 cm (without counting the under-caudal feathers of the male which reach one meter length) and is recognized at first sight with crested shoddy feathers which surmounts its head and with the extraordinary development of the caudal covers, which reach their maximum size only at age the four years and make it resemble a bird of the paradise. Its dominant color is the green emerald. The belly is red, the black rémiges and the white external rectrices.

Behavior

Still common in the areas remained wild, there spend most clearly its time in the very leafy trees where there remains perched on the low branches, almost motionless, turning of time to other the head of right-hand side and left, or opening and closing again its tail which hangs almost vertically.

When he sees a ripe Fruit, he will gather it while fluttering on the spot, then turns over on his perch. No American bird can compete with him for the beauty of the plumage and the elegance of its movements, and the most beautiful birds of the Old world themselves are not higher to him. Its flight is fast, corrugated like that of the peaks, and its flexible drag, formed by the long covers of its tail, ondoie with grace in the air.

The quetzal makes hear its S various, among which a choked whistle whose intensity increases gradually to decrease then.

List subspecies

Pharomachrus mocinno costaricensis Cabanis, 1869
Pharomachrus mocinno mocinno Of Llave, 1832

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