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 lightweigh ...

in the family

Trogonidae The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Early E ...

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 southe ...

, 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 Car ...

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: ''Eku ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, 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 forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

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 anthrop ...

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 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 the power of the ...

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 unexplained ...

'' 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 quet ...

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 The eared quetzal (''Euptilotis neoxenus''), also known as the eared trogon, is a near passerine bird in the trogon family, Trogonidae. It is native to streamside pine-oak forests and canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico south to we ...

''.

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

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 and ...

. 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 bet ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262480

crested quetzal The crested quetzal /ketSAHL/ (''Pharomachrus antisianus'') is a species of bird in the family Trogonidae native to South America, where it is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropica ...

Birds of the Northern Andes

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot