Quetzal | Facts & Information

Origin

"Quetzal "comes from the aztec word" quetzalli", which means" precious "or"beautiful". Unfortunately, its beauty has come to threaten the very existence of the bird. In fact, the quetzal is on the Endangered Species List. These birds were hunted for their skin, which was sold as a souvenir. It is the national bird of Guatemala.Some birds were caught alive and then sold as pets. However, the bird's existence is also threatened by deforestation, which leads to the destruction of its habitat.

The best time to observe quetzals is the nesting period, which lasts from March to June. During this period, birds may have two Ponts consisting of two eggs.

Quetzal Food

They feed on insects (ants, larvae, Wasps), small frogs and various types of fruits (especially avocados). Quetzal's favorite food is wild avocado.

The bird usually sits on a branch and looks at an avocado swinging on the branch of a nearby tree. Then, quickly flapping its wings, it rushes straight to the target, grabs the fruit with its beak and returns to its branch.

The quetzal swallows the fruit whole, and after 20-30 minutes regurgitates the large seeds of the fruit. In search of wild avocados, quetzals migrate to different coasts of the watershed of the american continent.

For example, from July to September, they populate the Pacific coasts. After that, in October, they go to the Antilles area to feed on a new harvest of avocados. Other favorite fruits are blackberries, which grow in spiked shrubs. As they rush to grab the fruit, quetzals sometimes snap their long tail feathers into their spines and run out of them. But later, they grow again.

American species feed only on fruits (which they tear off in flight from branches), African and Asian species live exclusively on insects (which they catch from the air, from the leaves or from the bark of trees). They follow their prey with great agility, catch it with skill and return to the resting place again.

Quetzal Features

The chest is very bright red, contrasting with the plumage or jade color. What gives it even more splendor are its white Cod feathers, which contrast with two other green-golden cod feathers.

These two green feathers are also called "ribbons", they reach up to about 60 centimeters long. A quetzal perched on the branch of a tree with its long "ribbons" fluttering in the wind is a sight of great beauty, a reassuring sight.

Recognized as the" national bird of Guatemala", the quetzal symbolizes freedom, autonomy and independence. The highest decoration awarded in this remote corner of Central America is called the Orden del Quetzal.

And the second largest city, after the capital city of Guatemala City, is called Quetzaltenango (which translates as "place of the quetzals"). The bird brings important income from tourism, in a country that lives mainly from exports of coffee, sugar and bananas.

Declared the symbol of Guatemala in 1871, the quetzal bird gives the name to the national currency. Even the name of the country comes from the indigenous word (nahuatl) Coactlmoctllan, which means "Country of the snake-eating bird".

Also known as the" snake-bird", the quetzal is a wonder that attracts tourists visiting the nature reserves of Baja Verapaz. Some disbelievers in the existence of a bird reserve rarely called the "feathered snake" were taken by the National Council of protected areas to the Ranchitos del Quetzal reserve, located 160 kilometers north of Baja Verapaz.

Here they could see five such specimens, flying through the trees. No one believed what Julio Alvarez, the owner of the reservation, said that the bird Pharamachrus moccinno (the scientific name of the quetzal) accepted to eat and settle near the courtyard of a house.

But the bird with its red chest, green feathers and huge tail was spotted on the branches of a tree containing its favourite fruit near Alvarez's Villa. Julio Alvarez planted guarumo trees on his farm, the fruits of which form part of the "snake-bird"diet.

The dance of this mythical bird, which reaches lengths of 1.40 meters, is considered a miracle, and the mere fact of seeing it is "an event".

Breeding Quetzal

During the brooding period, the male often performs rut flights. During this time it rises over the top of the trees and makes loud sounds.

In the period from April to august, the bird hatches twice (the eggs are light blue in color). The quetzal bird broods in old woodpecker hollows or sometimes, along with other birds, makes new holes in rotting trees.

Often the nests are used for many years. It does not use nesting material. The female hatches during the night and in the midday hours, and the male early in the morning and in the afternoon hours. Hatching lasts 17-18 days.

In the first 10 days the food of the chicks consists only of insects. Then they consume more and more fruits, especially Green Bay fruits, large and hard. Besides these it also feeds on small frogs, lizards, snakes, and small nevertrebrats. The nest is kept very clean for the first ten days, but after that a lot of debris is collected in it (which consists mostly of fruit seeds).

The chicks stay in the nest for about a month and are fed one at a time. When the first of the two chicks leaves the nest, it is more in the attention of the father (who in the last days of nesting cared for the chicks). The second cub waits in vain for food (more than a few hours in a row), only to insert the father returns with food in the beak.