Resplendent Quetzal

Pablo de la Llave (1773-1833) described Pharomachrus mocinno in detail in 1832, but it was José Mariano Mocino (1757-1820) who made the first scientific discovery of this incredible bird. Pablo de la Llave named this trogonid Pharomachrus, which means long coat in Greek, honoring his mentor José Mariano Mocino. If the bird is so extraordinary, it's also because its name in Nahuatl (Aztec) can be translated as the amazing green long plume, from which the legend of the feathered serpent Quetzacoalt may come, cohuatl meaning serpent in Nahuatl. While many hypothesis may be possible for Quetzacoalt, there can be no mistake about the Resplendent Quetzal, is it the most beautiful bird in the world or one of the most beautiful existing birds? Pharomachrus mocinno is big, 38 cm without the tail, a tail measuring around 61 cm, that's 1 m from the head to the tip of the tail! Everything is extraordinary with it, the head, the forehead and the beginning of the neck is an electric green, the feathers of its head have a yellow tint that can turn into gold during the reflections of the sun, and they slightly stand up to form an unmistakable crest. The eyes are dark brown almost black, the beak is yellow, the neck, the mantel and the back are emerald green with turquoise reflections, in low light conditions the green tint changes to a blue-green, even a violet blue color. The scapulars and the cover feathers keep the same emerald green color, the Resplendent Quetzal holding its cover feathers almost vertically and separated, the remiges are black, the primaries being long until their rumps. The throat and the upper chest emerald green can turn into turquoise blue with the light. The lower chest, the belly and the bottom of the belly, are scarlet red.One word for the tail: extraordinary! The lower rectrices are white and present in three distinct pairs bordered in black when the bird is seen from the front, four green rectrices finish off the tail, with the two central ones being very long, measuring up to sixty centimeters from the uppertail coverts, the two outer ones being always green but shorter. When the bird is viewed from behind, one can distinguish the three pairs of upper rectrices which are black and masked by the two outer green pairs. The gray tarsi can barely be seen. Much to the chagrin of the ladies, this description pertains to the male, his wife being more discreet. The first observation is that the tail is almost normal! A brown-green head, a cap, throat, and nape; a black eye and bill, the upper chest is still brown-green but striped alternately with brown and green, the stripes are quite diffuse and seem more or less marked depending on the individual. The belly is brown-gray with a somewhat "faded" tone, the lower belly is red, though also with a duller shade than the male's. The green coverts are shorter and not as long, the primary feathers are black with very visible white edgings. The lower rectrices are horizontally striped with white and black, these stripes seem to differ from one female to another, with some appearing whiter or the opposite. The upper rectrices are black and present the two central normal-sized green pairs, much shorter than the male's. The juveniles look like their mother, the immature males have shorter coverts and do not have their father's tail, their lower rectrices divide into three white pairs at the tips which are gray-black, the borders are striped black and white, and the tip of the tail is black. In fact, the immature male is very close to a classic trogon.Two subspecies are recognized, mocinno previously described in southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and central and northern Nicaragua, ssp costaricensis smaller, Costa Rica, northwest Panama, central rectrices shorter and closer, the green color is more yellowish.