The most beautiful bird in Honduras

Last weekend, Kathy, Virgil, Amanda, and I spent a beautiful weekend in the mountains of La Tigra National Park, not far from Tegucigalpa. While there, I achieved one of the most important goals for my time in Honduras -- the witnessing of the beautiful Resplendent Quetzal. It's is the kind of bird that eludes you if you are trying to find it, so the key, apparently, is to casually be walking along the road trying to find a singing clay-colored robin, and just happen to come upon it sitting conspicuously on a branch just off to the right of the road. At least that's how it happened for us.

It was an incredible site -- a male in full plumage, shimmering green and red in the evening sunlight. Virgil and I (the only ones who saw it) gazed at it wide-eyed for a few seconds, then I tried to take a picture, in which the magnificent birded ended up a shaky, dark green blob. (The picture above is not mine.) This bird is special for a couple of reasons. For one, it is just so much more beautiful that it almost doesn't make sense. Two, few people ever see it, even in a zoo, because quetzals die in captivity. Third, rampant habitat destruction in Central America has driven this bird close to extinction. They need large swaths of undisturbed forest with lots of dead trees for nesting sites.

We spent Sunday morning with Honduran birding fanatic Daniel Germer, whose Web site Hondubirding.wordpress.com is linked to our blog on the right. It was a great connection and super fun morning. We also made his blog! Check it out here. Here are some other birds we saw:

Mountain Trogon
Rufous Browed Wren
Scaled Antpita
White-Faced Quail Dove
Black-Throated Jay
Strong Billed Woodcreeper
White Eared Hummingbird
Common Bush Tanager
Chestnut Capped Brushfinch
Slate-Colored Solitaire
Slate-Throated Redstart
Bushy Crested Jay

I'll try not to write about birds again for while.