Quetzals are not easy to observe in the forests they frequent, living high up in the canopy where they look for fruits and invertebrates that make up the bulk of their diet. They can swallow large fruits thanks to their adjustable jaws and regurgitate large seeds. Another unusual feature of the digestive system of the quetzal is the absence of a crop, the food storage organ that birds are usually endowed with. Their legs are weak and they do not fly well, preferring to jump or flit from branch to branch. What's more, as their relatively large eyes reveal, quetzals are twilight, meaning they're more active at dusk and dawn than during the day. This can give them some protection from birds of prey. They perch at the edge of tree holes, often adopting those created and then abandoned by woodpeckers, and also nest in these surroundings, their short and powerful beaks also allowing them to create their own holes.

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The reproduction of quetzals

It is only once they are about 5 years old that quetzals breed for the first time, the males developing at this time their magnificent and long subcaudal feathers, for which they are always hunted. They use them to perform their courtship. Territorial by nature, quetzals claim their territory through their cries that resemble whistles. Both members of the pair take turns hatching the eggs, with the young then leaving the nest once they are about 3 weeks old.

Did you know?

Guatemalans say that when the conquistadors arrived, killing many indigenous warriors, the quetzals came to the battlefield and landed on the bodies of the fallen Mayans. This colored their chest with blood, which is why the chest of these birds today is red.

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