The crested quetzal /ketSAHL/ (''Pharomachrus antisianus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Trogonidae native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

, where it is found in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

French naturalist

Alcide d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropol ...

described the crested quetzal in 1837 as ''Trogon antisianus''. The species name is derived from ''Antis'', a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

ised version of the Andes, ultimately from ''anti'', an Incan word for copper. It is closely related to the

resplendent quetzal The resplendent quetzal (''Pharomachrus mocinno'') is a small bird found in southern Mexico and Central America, with two recognized subspecies, ''P. m. mocinno'' and ''P. m. costaricensis''. These animals live in tropical forests, particularly ...

(''P. mocinno''). It is one of five species of the genus ''

Pharomachrus ''Pharomachrus'' is a genus of birds in the family Trogonidae. ''Pharomachrus'' is from Ancient Greek ''pharos'', "mantle", and ''makros'', "long", referring to the wing and tail coverts of the resplendent quetzal (the second ''h'' is unexplaine ...

'' known as

quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared q ...

s. The term "quetzal" was originally used for just the resplendent quetzal, but is now applied to all members of the genera ''Pharomachrus'' and '' Euptilotis''.

Description

Adult birds are long. The head and upperparts of the adult male are metallic green, while its breast and belly are red. Alone among the quetzals, the male has a short crest above its short bill, which is orange. The vent is white. Females have brown heads and upper breast and no crest.

Distribution and habitat

The crested quetzal is found along the Andes from

through

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

and

, in pristine and mature second-growth forest from in altitude. It has been rated as ''least concern'' on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

as it has a large range and its population appears to be stable.

Feeding

The crested quetzal is

frugivorous A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance an ...

. Adults raising young also catch more nutritious prey such as arthropods and small vertebrates; one such item recorded was the glassfrog species ''

Hyalinobatrachium pallidum ''Hyalinobatrachium pallidum'' (common name: Guacharaquita glass frog, in Spanish ''ranita de cristal pálida'') is a species of frog in the family Centrolenidae. It is endemic to Venezuela. It is known from its type locality, Guacharaquita b ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262480 crested quetzal Birds of the Northern Andes crested quetzal Taxonomy articles created by Polbot