Readers’ wildlife photos

I have a few batches of photos left, but if you have something to contribute, please send it before Sunday or after next Thursday (I’ll be gone in that interval) so we can keep this feature going. Thanks!

Scott Ritchie has compiled a substantial group of photos of what I consider the world’s most beautiful bird, the Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno).  You can see Scott’s Facebook post on the bird here, but I have permission to quote it and show the pictures. (I’ve published a singleton before.) Scott is a retired medical entomologist, living in Cairns, Australia who travels for birds! Scott’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

No birding trip to Costa Rica is complete without a view of, and good photos of, the Resplendent Quetzal. This shimmering green and wine (think young cabernet) coloured bird, with the extravagant long green “tail”, lives in the mountains of Mesoamerica. Emperors made special headdresses with the long green tail feathers of thise bird as the center-piece. Anyway, I had to see it. Off to the Paraiso Quetzal lodge in the Costa Rican highlands, where we had a special session at a Quetzal hide early the next morning.

But first, we brushed off hummingbirds from the main platform at the lodge, and kept an eye out for quetzals. My guide Alex fetched me from my forays for hummingbirds “Quick, a quetzal, on the perch to the right. And sure enough, there she was. A female Resplendent Quetzal. While not as extravagant as the male, she’s still a beauty. And an hour later, as the sun was setting, a young male flew in, sitting handsomely on a bromeliad-encrusted branch in the late afternoon sun, his smaller tail hinting at glories to come. By the way, technically, the long tail feathers of the quetzal are not tail feathers, but rather are tail coverts (bird geeking, sorry).

We got up early the next AM and went for a viewing at the Quetzal hide. Yes, another set-up. The birds use a nest hole in a stump perched atop a cut-off sapling in an open paddock. But the birds are wild, and seemed happy enough. We certainly were! A group of about a dozen birders set up our cameras and telephoto lenses, and waited for the quetzals to arrive. Eventually the male with his super long “tail” came in, landing gently on the stump, to feed his chicks. The male and female took turns, and good flights shots of each were obtained. They truly are gems of the forest fit for a king.

The mountain lodge where I stayed:

The quetzal viewing “hide”. No doubt they could see us! The quetzals had a nest hole in the stump set atop the sapling in the distance. Long lenses essential!

A young male with long covert feathers just beginning to grow:

Female Resplendent Quetzal seen from the lodge platform on the first day. She has a much smaller “tail” than the male.

Quetzals are trogons. They are medium-sized, stately and colourful birds with long, squared-off tails. Here’s a Slaty-tailed Trogon we saw in the lowland rainforest:

And later mom provides a nice dragonfly for breakie!: [JAC: “breakie” = “breakfast”]

But where’s Dad? I’m still starving!:

And here he comes…I had to back off on the zoom to ensure I got the whole tail!:

Slows for landing. The tail coverts curl back tantalisingly:

And he pulls up to land. Note the chick’s beak just peeking out:

Female brings in breakie for the chicks. Two chicks can be seen at the nest hole to the left of her head:

Female with a blackberry for her chicks: