RESPLENDENT QUETZAL ((Pharomachrus mocinno)
Description: 14" (36 cm), plus up to 25" (64 cm) for male´s streamers; 210 g. Male unmistakable even without streamers because of literally compressed, helmetlike crest that extends forwars to cover base of bill; female and young crestless but with distinctively barred tail, gray breast. Adult male: mostly glittering green; elongated wing-coverts extend to sides of breast.; 4 central upper tail-covertselongated into slender, flexible streamers; remiges and central rectrices black; lateral rectrices white; lower breast maroon; shading to bright crimson on belly. Bill yellow; feet olive-gray. Adult female: much duller; wing and tail-coverts only slightly elongated; head dull bronze-green; breast gray; belly paler crimson; lateral rectrices coarsely barred with black and white; upper mandible black. Inmatures: like adult female but above more bronzy; tail more coarsely barred. Young: above dark sooty-brown; scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials with extensive buffy bases and edges; below buff, fading to white on belly, indistinctly barred or smudged with dusky. Habits: Prefers damp, epiphyte-laden mountain forests, frequenting canopy and edges, usually solitary or in pairs, though several may gather at a fruiting tree; may travel in small loose flocks following breeding; sallies to pluck fruits or snatch insects, small frogs and lizards or snails, favorite fruits include various Lauraceae, also Symplocos. Voice: Most often heard is a sharp, cackling perwicka, upon taking flight or in agitation; male´s song of deep, smooth, slurret notes in simple patterns: keow kowee keow k´loo keow k´loo keeloo ..., often strikingly melodious; also whining notes, chiefly in nesting season; in steeply rising display flight, male calls very good, very good. Nest: A deep, woodpeckerlike, unlined cavity with a single entrance, 14 - 90 ft (4.3 - 27 m) up in decaying trunk in forest or nearby clearing. Eggs 2, pale blue. March - June (often 2 broods). Status: Fairly common resident of forested or partly forested mountains from Cordillera de Tilarán S to Panamá; upward from 4,000 ft (1,200 m) in Cordillera de Tilarán, and from 5,000 ft (1,500 m) to over 10,000 ft (3,000 m) in Cordilleras Central and of Talamanca; following breeding makes limited altitudinal movements; persists in largely deforested areas if remnant woods contain good feeding and nesting trees. Range: Southern Mexico to Western Panamá. Note: Pronounced Ket-saal'