This video starts with other amazing creatures living in Mexico, but a minute in, we meet the Resplendent Quetzal. All the quetzal species are amazing, but even among quetzals, this one is special. Resplendent, in fact. The video says it's the most beautiful bird in the Americas. The famed ornithologist Alexander Skutch said it was the most beautiful bird he'd ever seen, and he saw many more than I ever will. He was so mesmerized by the Resplendent Quetzal that he lived alone in the highlands of Costa Rica for almost a year just so he could watch its behaviour. (You can read more about Skutch's fascinating life here.) Pablo Neruda compared it, in his Ode to Guatemala, to a "sudden sapphire." I read here that for 200 years, European naturalists thought this bird was a myth, and in the video, it's called "a mythical creature," even as we see footage of it flying through the trees, its ribbon-like tail coverts trailing behind. Birders travel from around the world to see and photograph the Resplendent Quetzal, leading Alan F. Poole to call it a million-dollar bird and to report that farmers are urged to keep their land "quetzal-friendly." I thoroughly enjoyed researching this bird!
It's one thing to be a gorgeous bird of legend
Trailing three-foot feathers of iridescent green behind you
As you soar through the cloud forest.
But you, oh Resplendent Quetzal
Take it a step further
As you bring bugs and lizards to your offspring.
Spectacular to look at and a good dad?
Now that's what I call resplendent.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
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