Talk:Golden-headed quetzal

removed text

I deleted the following text:

The Resplendent Quetzal is often held to be the most beautiful bird in the Western Hemisphere. A member of the elegant Trogon family, the Resplendent Quetzal is unique in that the breeding plumage of the males includes spectacular tail feathers that can reach two feet (60cm) in length. Birdwatchers from around the world make the long and bumpy trek to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in the Tilarán mountains of Costa Rica to attempt to catch a glimpse of this magnificent bird.

The beauty of the Golden-headed Quetzal has been admired for centuries. It was an important element of early Central American mythology, and Aztec royalty wore headdresses including plumes removed from live-trapped males (which could then be released to grow new feathers with their next molt). Guatemalans so revere the Quetzal that they chose it as the national bird, and even named their monetary unit the "quetzal".

Golden-headed Quetzals rely heavily on the fruit of wild avocados for food. The fruits are swallowed whole, and the large seeds, still viable, are often regurgitated at some distance from the source tree. Because Quetzals are among the only frugivorous (fruit-eating) birds able to eat these large fruits, it is thought that the wild avocados are quite reliant on them to disperse their seeds. Thus, Quetzals and wild avocado trees both need each other.

The breeding season for Golden-headed Quetzals in Monteverde lasts from March though June or July. The birds naturally choose to nest in dead trees and stumps 3-20 meters (10-60 feet) above the ground. They will often enlarge cavities started by woodpeckers, but can also use their beaks to chip out their own holes if none are available already. The female lays two blue eggs and both parents help incubate for the next 18-19 days until they hatch. The growing chicks are initially fed mostly small invertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles, but begin to eat fruit as they mature. The chicks fledge about 25 days after hatching -- if they escape the constant threat of predation. Less than 20 percent of the young survive to leave the nest. Toucanets, Brown Jays, squirrels, Tayras, and weasels are all happy to make a meal of young Quetzals.

In Monteverde, Costa Rica, the Resplendent Quetzals are present only during January-July. It was long a mystery where the birds spend the rest of the year. In 1989, local biologist George Powell used miniature radio transmitters to track Monteverde Quetzals when they left their breeding range as the avocado fruit in the cloud forest became scarce. He found that they first move down the Pacific slope for about three months (July-October), then migrate again to the Atlantic slope for another several months (October-December). This movement is extremely important to Quetzal conservation, since it requires that three distinct regions be protected to ensure a year-round food source for the birds. Fortunately, it has been possible for a large amount of land to be purchased and protected.

The Modern Quetzal

Today, the Quetzal's range actually extends from southern Mexico through Western Panama in mountain regions with an elevation of 4,000 to 10,000 feet. At some point in time the species of Pharomachrus Mocinno were separated into a Northern and Southern species by the stretch of lowlands that covers parts of southern Guatemala, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. The southern species is Pharomachrus Mocinno Costaricensus and differs from the northern species by its shorter, narrower tail plumes on the male. Costa Rica's Quetzals are more fortunate, since Costa Rica marshalled funds by abolishing its army in 1948 to establish an extensive system of national parks and wildlife reserves to protect the habitat of the Quetzal. This has resulted in a highly successful eco-tourism business, in which the habitat of many other species are protected as well so that tourists can come to see the more famous Quetzal or Macaw.

Pharomachrus Mocinno Mocinno, predominantly found in Guatemala, has not fared as well as its southern cousin. It was currently listed as endangered since June 14, 1976 in Appendix I of CITES. The northern Quetzal is a victim of a loss of habitat as a result of deforestation by the slash and burn method of the Guatemalan peasant for subsistance agriculture. Out of Guatemala's total area of 108,899 square kilometers, the Quetzal had originally ranged over 25,000-30,000 square kilometers. By 1974, that range had been reduced a tenth to 3500 square kilometers. By 1981, the Quetzal's zone had been further reduced to 2500 square kilometers. It is for this reason that scientists believe the northern, more resplendent Quetzal will be extinct in a few short years.

The Problem The Quetzal has always been a species that attracted a great deal of attention and was ms Fuch sought after. In Mayan times it was foridden to kill the Quetzal.

The Quetzal plumes were used as items of trade and were traded as far north as New Mexico and as far south as the Andes. Because of their value as money and for trading purposes it was forbidden by the Mayans to kill a Quetzal. Once the conquistadors were in power the ban was not enforced. This decree did not prove successful, however, and in 1895, a second decree was issued. This was due in part, to the exploitatin of the Mayans. As part of a Liberal revolution, the Mayans were violently pulled off of their traditional milpa plots, where they grew maize, and turned into virtual slaves on the large coffee plantations. Raising maize on one's milpa was a sacred Mayan duty, for labor was a form of worship and growing maize on a milpa, the Mayans believed, was what kept the sun up. Therefore, to be separated from the milpa, was to be separated from the self, and outside of Mayan culture. Many Mayans fled this exploitive system to live "under the trees, under the vines." They resisted being pulled off of their traditional milpas and fled to nearly inaccessable elevated rain forests, known as cloud forests. The refugees began burning the cloud forests to clear land to raise their own milpas. This was very detrimental to the Quetzals. They were suddenly threatened with habitat loss in an area that had rarely seen humans before and now their very lives were in jeopardy because Quetzals skins brought good money to European traders and many Mayans began to hunt Quetzals to sell them out of greed or desperation. The overall effects have been disasterous. Recent experiments have shown that as the rain forests are cut down, the mean temperature of Guatemala has risen. This change in temperature has an adverse effect on the fruits of the Lauraciae family, such as avocados, which the Quetzals eat. These fruits require high elevation, cool temperatures, and lots of moisture, which is why they flourished in the cloud forests. Now that the cloud forests are shrinking and more and more humans are moving into a once uninhabited area, the Quetzal is rapidly losing its ephereal habitat. Without protected habitat, the Guatemalan Resplendent Quetzal is doomed to extinction.

[end excerpt]

This all appears to be about the Resplendent Quetzal. Some of this information could probably be added to that article, if there are good sources. It would have to be made NPOV and worked in so as to make a well-organized article. —JerryFriedman 04:12, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Feeling harriered

This page says they hover. Do these, too? TREKphiler ^{hit me ♠} 16:21, 22 December 2008 (UTC)