A Resplendent Nightmare

The Resplendent Quetzal, one of the most beautiful and sought after birds in the world. Found only in the Cloud Forests of Costa Rica, it feeds on wild avocado.

The resplendent quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) is a living jewel of the mesoamerican cloud forest. Few birds can rival the males beauty: iridescent emerald feathers, a crimson breast, and tail feathers longer than the whole body. Well, they are actually modified upper tail coverts and not the rectrices, but that makes them almost more spectacular, with a more flowy appearance. This bird appears almost impossible, yet it exists, and people have taken notice for a very long time.

As the name suggests, the resplendent quetzal is associated with Quetzalcoatal, the mesoamerican snake deity. Its long tail lends it something of a serpentine look, I guess. The long feathers themselves were used in headdresses of nobility. They were apparently collected from live birds, releasing the unfortunate male after they had finished plucking the plumes they wanted. The term quetzal came to mean sacred or precious in some parts of mesoamerica.

Another look at the head of a male quetzal, also showing the crimson breast color.

This divine bird captured the imagination of Europeans, and after centuries, particularly bird-watchers. This bird is just one of those must see species. I have to say for myself it is easily in my top five birds globally I wanted to see, in a list with other avian legends and other oddities. This bird probably helped put mesoamerican cloud forests on the tourism map, and walking Monteverde you see its image everywhere. I think even non-birders want to see this creature, as it is a natural wonder much like Arches and other rock formations of Utah.

A female resplendent quetzal. Not as showy as the males, but still a very nice looking trogon.

My quest to see a quetzal is not the most daring adventure I have had to embark on. It didn’t involve running up a hill with poison ivy to see an elegant trogon, taking a jeep down an insane jungle road before a hard hike in a remote part of Kauai to glimpse a puaiohi, or go traipsing into the jungle following army ants to see the ocellated antbird. If anything it was pretty straightforward. Ebird told me the place to check out was Curi-cancha reserve next to the Monteverde cheese factory. So on the 4th of July after finishing an exam, I headed out. I found Monteverde is a very walkable place. (the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is a bit further and best to just take a taxi there, but we will get to this reserve later) I walked into the main entrance paid my fee, (Monteverde is the land of paying about $15 to do stuff) and the man there circled an area on the trail map and said look for quetzals there. Well, I walked up filled with anticipation, and arrived at the spot to find a family already there, and they had a quetzal in a wild avocado tree. It was a female, a stunning trogon, but I still really wanted to see the male bird with its incredible plumage. I hung around a little, walked the cloud forest, and learned if I wanted to see a male it sounded like I needed to go early.

A male quetzal from the front, red breast, and his long tail coverts blowing in the wind.

So a few days later I gathered a small group of other students excited to see this bird. We arrived early, and again a family was already there, and had just seen a male. I saw something torpedoing through the trees. These birds are hard to spot when not moving, on par with my experience with trogons, fortunately with so many people I quickly had the exact spot described to me. It was a truly amazing bird, with long feathers blowing in the wind. I was quite ecstatic to finally see and photograph this incredible bird. We hung around, as a few groups came through and took a look.

The back veiw of a male quetzal, his tail coverts crossing in a a very fluid way.

Weeks later I made a return trip, because why not. I arrived to what else but a group that already had a female bird in their scopes. At this point I realized that finding a quetzal was literally just finding a group that had one. Those who have seen the movie The Big Year may get this; I would refer to this as “Skua Birding” or just letting others do the work of spotting, and then getting the bird. This time though I actually was spotting quetzals, while other people looked at the one the guides had seen. The area probably a total of five. Now after the excitement of first seeing these gems, I go to observe these birds and get a feel for their movement and behavior. Like all trogons they slowly move and cock their heads, which I heard a guide call scanning. Basically looking around for food. They also are quite clumsy in the air, sort of wildly flapping about. I got to look at them even closer than before. The thing was, that since the last time I had been in Curi-cancha the male had shed his tail. They looked less exotic and regal, and more cute. I stayed around for some time and many groups came through, and listened to the same speal about the quetzal. Eventually some thirty people stood around, but the quetzal area here is quite open and though it felt crowded, it wasn’t too intense.

Where did my tail go? This male has lost the long tail coverts that makes this species so famous.

In my last few days in Monteverde I finally made my way to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. This place was different. Hiking the upper trails it is a magnificent place, wandering the magical forest swallowed by the clouds. I was definitely reminded of Hawaiian Cloud Forest. Except, it was packed. I had not seen crowds like this for over a month. A line to get a ticket, a line to get in. When walking a path, a group had formed as they had spotted the quetzal. Unlike Curi-cancha with its wide open area, this was on a narrow path. It was then that all my musings of the similarities between Moab and Monteverde kind of connected. Anyone who has not visited Arches National Park in a while may be shocked by the amount of people trying to get in. I am down in the Moab area quite often, but almost never venture into the park. Maybe January. The line to get in by car is often hundreds of feet long and takes a while. Delicate arch is a nightmare of a hike, with a constant procession of visitors going to grab their selfie under Utah’s most famous landmark. The quetzal seems to be something everyone who comes to monteverde seems to want to see. I am of course no exception, but over my time in the area and seeing the quetzals four times, I became more and more aware of this. Also might have to do with my irritation at not getting a great angle at a prong-billed barbet that came by.

A crowd of visitors and guides in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve looking at a handful of quetzals in the mist.

Possibly just because I want to go back, but there could be an interesting study on the effects of birding in Monteverde. It is one of those few places, like Madera Canyon, that are so heavily trafficked by birders that we could get a real look on how this kind of ecotourism affects nature. Of course this popularity is probably not a bad thing, the desire to see a wild quetzal probably plays an important part in the amount of reserves in the Monteverde area; and fortunately trails only cover a fraction of the cloud forest, so there are quetzals somewhere in the mist not bothered by crowds gawking at them.

This place feels like a dream... Not sure what was up with the shafts of light my camera picked up, but it looks magical in the moss shrouded branches of gnarled cloud forest trees.

Evans, Susan Toby; David L. Webster (2000). Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia. Kahurangi Press. pp. 265–66. ISBN 978-0815308874. Retrieved 2015-03-22.

Trouble With Trogons

The Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) is on of the most colorful birds in the United States.

Few Birds in North America capture a birders imagination like the Elegant Trogon. Trogons are a birds found throughout the world's tropics. However, A few species can be found in more temperate habitats. The Elegant Trogon is the most Northerly living of trogons. Found mostly in the mountains of Mexico, it's range just barely extends into the United States in a few places. Their presence is a major draw to places like Madera Canyon; just check out the Santa Rita Lodge gift shop: Trogon pins, Native American Pottery depicting trogons, Trogon socks, etcetera. I caught Trogon fever, and took my high school graduation trip to southern Arizona. Not only that, I decided I wanted to finally get into SLRs to get a gorgeous picture of this exotic bird.

On the day I was here Madera Canyon felt like a "Lost World" with the peaks enveloped in clouds.

So my first shot at the species was in Madera Canyon, the first really mountainous stop in southern Arizona on the trip. Checking Ebird, the location to be was the Carrie-nation trail, which heads up canyon from the end of the canyon road. Two Sulfur-bellied Flycatchers flew around just above the parking lot. Waking up I saw my first bridled titmouse and saw the beautiful Arizona Sister butterfly drinking from the creek bed. Then from the above came the call of the Trogon. It is an unmistakable sound, which sounds, no joke, exactly like a barking chihuahua. Following the racket up the trail. I finally deduced it was on the hill side, so to get my picture I rushed up the steep slope through the poison ivy. There I set eyes on the bird, but as I lifted my camera he flew off his perch and into the canopy. After picking my way down the hill I heard the bird further away. The next year when I came back, I was talking to a guy staffing the Santa Rita Lodge gift shop and told this story, I learned this particular bird has befuddled many a birder, leading them to the top of his territory, calling the whole way, only to fly silently back to the bottom and resume calling; while being easily observed by average hikers. We then had a quick conversation on why the bird behaved this way, was it messing with birders, or was some behavior of birders actually more disturbing than people wondering by having a conversation. I figured someone shushing sounds a little like a Jay.

Hoodoos in Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona. These rock formations look very different than those commonly seen in the Colorado plateau region to the north. I live the green on the dark rocks, gives it an "exotic" look

After my failed attempt to get my sought after picture in Madera, I headed east to the Chiricahua Mountains. This little mountain range has some truly spectacular hoodoos, and a great variety of Mexican Birds. Trogons appear to be pretty uncommon on the Western side of the range, in the national monument. However, on the eastern side, Ebird indicated that Cave Creek Canyon was where trogons could be seen. Driving over the top of the Chiricahua Mountains is a highly recommend place to go birding, on the way up I got the red-face warbler. The descent into Cave Creek was a bit rough and steep and wore the breaks off the car. The place to go is the South Fork of Cave Creek, an abandoned washed out road. On the journey up an A-10 Thunderbolt flew through the canyon at low altitude. Eventually though I turned around to head off to the Cave creek lodge, which has feeders that bring in many species. Talking to them they said the Trogon had been sited in the South fork that day so I went back. Around a pair of cabins (which I joked would be a great place to own, and have Trogon nest boxes) the barking began and a male Trogon flew down to road at me. I finally got my Trogon shots I had wanted, but they were far from perfect.

An Elegant Trogon Perched above me in the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon

The next year I enrolled in a Desert Ecology class through University, and headed back down for spring break. We got to stay in the Santa Rita Experimental range in Florida Canyon, right next to Madera. Better yet, a Trogon was seen regularly only a few hundred feet from where I was sleeping. I went out every day when I had free time. Yet the Trogon never showed up. Finally, one night I was waiting with one of the TAs in the parking lot where the bird had been seen; we were with a group of birders also looking for it. We ended up discussing the really rare animal of the Santa Ritas, a jaguar which had been detected by camera traps, and was the only Jaguar known to currently be wild in the United Sates. After they left as the sky darkened, the trogon burst across the parking lot calling loudly, disappearing just as quickly into the gloom.

Several Goldfinches Perched on Ocotillo Plants. The Ocotillo may be may favorite plant in the Sonoran Desert.

It was finally down to the last day of the class, we would be headed up north the next mourning. During the heat of the day I got the ABA rarity, the Black Capped Gnatcatcher, which were down the road in a very rocky wash. As evening approached and a large group of people from the class gathered to get the bird, I finally broke down and tried a recording. Recordings are definitely the “Jedi mind tricks” of birding, although maybe not outright bad, they are ethically muddy for sure. In Madera they are highly discouraged, as they have been known to habituate birds and probably fakes out birders. Ultimately, in my humble and inexperienced opinion should only be used to locate a bird you are having a lot of trouble with, like a Trogon you have been looking for a week. As soon as a particular recording rang out (which I will not share) the bird appeared. I got the camera up and started exposing images. After taking some incredible looking shots I did a quick check. To my horror the photographs were black and white. Somehow the dial has switched to creative. I quickly got it back to regular and took more shots. But the light was fading and High ISO led to some of the images being a little noisy. I took one flash shot, which ended up quite nice, although I felt it was a bit disturbing the bird, although it didn't seem to pass it or birds I have used it on since. In the end I spent a good long while with the Trogon, photography it as it worked it's way from Perch to Perch until it finally flew into the thicket surrounding the creek.

The most colorful bird in North America, in beautiful black and white. It is an amazing shot of a trogon, but sadly is in Black and White.

The black and white Trogon picture became a bit of a joke, and over time I have come to appreciate my folly. However, I would like to go back and do another photoshoot with this frustrating but exceptional bird.

Trogon Photograph taken with my onboard Flash. It turned turned out quite nice.

Trogon Tips

-listen for and know the trogons call, All of my sightings involved locating the bird by it's call. They disappear very easily if you don't have eyes on them.

-I would discourage using recordings, for three of the 4 times I have seen the bird l, I have not needed them, they are fairly vocal especially when most people are birding in the area so recordings are not necessary.

-When Trogons Perch they stay for about 30 seconds moving their head around, then fly off. This gives you the opportunity to get several shots with the head at different angles.

A nice picture taken strait on with the bird. This was among the last images before it took off into the gloom of dusk