Resplendent Quetzal....a holy grail of birders!

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It has been a long time since I updated my blog. Rapid growth of image sharing social media sites has an effect on conventional blogs, at least in my case. As I started posting images on Facebook, my posts in this blog dwindled and very soon stopped. Increased viewership and instant responses of “likes” on Facebook has its added attraction but conventional blogs  still remain the mainstay with serious readers and writers. After my recent tour of Costa Rica, I thought of reviving my blog but was delayed due to my inherent trait of procrastination. I begin with this post a series about bird photography tour of Costa Rica.

 I was always fascinated by several photographs of colourful birds of Costa Rica on Facebook and Instagram, mainly from central American and south American photographers, but the posts of my Facebook friend Supreet Sahoo regularly caught my attention. Colourful toucans, tanagers and not to forget the most resplendent bird quetzal gradually came to the top of my wish list. Sometime in April/ May 2018, I contacted Supreet Sahoo about his photo tours in Costa Rica who informed about availability of a slot in January 2019. As usual my ever encouraging wife Anupama supported the idea and I started looking for few photography friends for joining the tour, but  nobody could join and finally decided to travel alone. I will elaborate on the preparation, travel and other aspects of the trip in a future article and limit this post to share our experiences in the search of a bird in the mountainous parks of Costa Rica. This bird considered by many as the holy grail of birders is one of the most resplendent bird I have ever seen and is rightly called as Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno).We saw more than hundred species of birds in our ten day trip in Costa Rica but the experience with this bird stands apart as unique and so I am writing an exclusive blog on this bird.

   Resplendent Quetzal is a bird of the trogon family. Trogons are colourful birds and several species of trogons are seen worldwide mainly in rain forests.Quetzals are exclusive to central America, their distribution ranges from Mexico to Panama in the montane forests. Resplendent quetzal  is the national bird of Guatemala and the national flag and coat of arms of Guatemala have the picture of this bird and the currency of Guatemala is called Guatemala Quetzales. They are seen in mountainous tropical cloud forests at altitudes above 2000- 3000 feet like the Talamanca mountain range of Costa Rica which has thick cloud forest vegetations. Los Quetzal national park located around 100 kms from the Costa Rican capital city of San Jose and spread over 5000 hectares of thick forests rich in flora and fauna . Resplendent quetzals are long slender birds and a breeding male measures around 40 inches, the tail is about twice the size of body and keeps freely swaying when the bird is perched. The distinctive long tail is lacking in females and the male is more colourful than female bird. The bird is green in colours but the shades vary depending on the direction of light fall and shades of blue, green or violet can be seen depending on the light. The green feathers are iridescent and look like a green coat, the chest and abdomen of male quetzal is bright red in colours and the beak is bright yellow.They feed mainly on fruits and especially attracted to avocados. January -February are the beginning of  breeding season for quetzals in Costa Rica. They prefer hollows in tall trees for nesting. Resplendent quetzals are on the top of lists of every birder visiting Costa Rica and naturally we too were eager to see them and get a clean perched shot of this beautiful bird.

  For the first three days in Costa Rica we stayed in Sarapiqui area which is considered as mid elevations geographically. We were six in the group, Dr Barun Sinha , a urologist and an avid photographer from Patna who is also the secretary General of Photography society of India, Dr Pramod Shanbag, a senior paediatrician from Bangalore, Dr Pulak Sahay, a Gastroenterologist from London and Mr Bhupinder Singh Randhawa, a software engineer from Chicago were my teammates and our mentor or tour leader was Mr Supreet Sahoo, a software professional and a professional nature photographer from Montreal. Jake Kevin, a Spanish teacher from University of Montreal, was another team member and he joined the tour on the fourth day of the trip.

Our journey from Sarapiqui to San Gerardo de Dota, was six hour drive in the mountains and the road became more tortuous after San Jose when we started going up the Talamanca mountain ranges. We reached Dota by afternoon and had lunch at a restaurant and  after a birding session in the same area proceeded to our lodge by evening. By that time the weather was getting very cold and we quickly finished checking in, had hot coffee in the restaurant of our lodge - Paraise de Quetzal and moved to our cabins. The place is at an altitude of 8500 feet above sea level. The wooden cabins located along the slope of a hill were  bit smaller but had provided us three layers of warm quilt and a small room heater. All these proved too little very soon when the temperature started falling. The restaurant had a fire place and most guests by then had gathered around the fire.We knew that we had to begin our next day very early and after dinner retired to bed .

    It was 4AM in the morning and a melodious Gurbani shloka started playing from Bhupinder's mobile, a nice alarm to begin the day. We were ready soon and reached hotel lobby for a cup of coffee and by 5.30 AM were on the road.The entry to Los quetzal national park is nearer to the town Dota but we preferred to go to a private farm near the national park. The birds are free and don’t confine themselves to the national park limits only, the avocado trees in the farm are perfect feeding places for the quetzals and the farmers keep watching the bird movements in the farm and our guides knew these places like the back of their hand. As we reached the farm driving through the deep valley the light was just enough for photography. The plantation was along a steep slope and we had to climb up a hill and it was a short trek of around 600 meters . The guide advised us to walk along the mud path upwards without talking or making any noises. The birds were already in the avocado trees. It was a literally uphill task to carry our gear which weighed around 10-12 kgs and as I reached the top of hillock, was breathing heavily and my heart was pounding! A small shelter at the hilltop was our destination for trek where we assembled our equipments and set our camera and lens on tripod . The avocado tree was some twenty feet from the shelter and inside the foliage of the tree a pair of quetzals were perched at a distance from each other and feeding on fruits. We could see the birds but couldn’t take any pictures. It was a waiting game, only if the bird comes  out of the tree to a particular branch which was in open and without leaves it is possible to get complete picture of the bird and being a shy bird it doesn’t come to an open branch quite often and even if it does, only for a fraction of a minute . Being a colourful bird, it is a question of survival for the bird to keep away from the eyes of the predators hovering above, as long as it is covered by leaves the bird is safe. The wind was blowing across the valley and the sun was spreading his rays in the valley from above downwards.The jackets and three layers of clothes were not enough for the cold and intermittent showers. We had time till it is completely bright across the valley and after 9.30 am or so , the birds play safe and do not move around much in open. Suddenly a female quetzal came out from the tree and perched in-front of us at a distance of twenty feet in open . All cameras started firing like AK-47s, the background was good and everyone got good photos but soon she moved to a different branch and then flew across into the adjoining forest.But our wait for the male quetzal continued.

As the female went out, we expected the male to come out of shades and look for it’s mate and as the time was running out, a sense of restlessness was palpable amongst us. But the luck was not with us that morning and the male came out  but soon flew directly into the forests. Will they come back or not was a question for which everyone had answers as per their wish. The guides asked us to wait and went down the hill to look for quetzal and some of our teammates followed them. I chose to wait with few others in the same place.  It was around 9 am and there was still no sign of quetzal. Supreet suggested us to pack up and go down the hill to the vehicles. As soon as we reached the vehicle, our guide Jorge was waving from a distance asking us to come to a road across the entry to plantation and he had seen the male quetzal somewhere there. With the lens and camera still on the tripod I ran towards him . There was a male quetzal sitting on top of a tree branch, the angle, background and lighting were all bad for a photo but that was the best option we got to see the male quetzal that day and it was gracious enough to offer few seconds to shoot before flying away and after changing few places it went straight up the hill to the same tree where we waited since morning! We had another trek again to the hilltop and it was feeling almost like gasping for breath when we reached the hilltop.Whenever a bird finds itself being followed by someone, it feels insecure and as we reached the shelter at top the male quetzal probably felt insecure and flew away in the opposite direction again towards the adjoining forests . I had some photos but they were far from satisfactory. So with a mixed feeling it was time to return to the lodge for further activity and we were to return again next day. The day passed with activities like shooting some small birds and hummingbirds in action.

A Female quetzal 

A male Resplendent quetzal

As planned, we again came back to same area next day at same time , but there were many birders looking for quetzal on the hill.Being familiar with the place and accustomed to climbing we quickly went to the same hilltop shelter. That was a bad day as there were hardly any activity of bird. We spent around three hours without any luck with  the bird before returning to the lodge. After lunch Supreet decided to test our luck once more in the afternoon. It was around 3 pm when we reached the spot and started climbing with all the gears. This was a terrible trek and at some point I felt as if I was developing pulmonary edema(Heart failure). My voice from within had already started blaming me for this madness ! With multiple stops I could complete the hiking and looked back to see Bhupinder climbing up.As he reached the top with gasping breaths, the  only words he uttered were” mar jaunga aaj” (will die today). A quick rest sitting on the ground brought fresh energy to all and by then the guides had noticed a pair of quetzals in the nearby avocado tree . Another round of waiting game started, this was quite long and finally a bird came out to an open perch. Someone sighed and whispered “ female again”, the disappointment was striking in the tone. Supreet was standing behind us and must have almost lost his cool and retorted "quetzal tho hai na? Kawwa nahi , pehle photo keecho ” (at least it's a quetzal , not a crow! click photos first) .By now we had good pictures of female quetzal but our luck with male bird was still eluding us. The male quetzal is a really great looking bird and to have it in picture while on an open perch with clean background is every photographer’s dream. The female had again gone back into the tree and the male finally made an appearance on a fairly open branch. It was much better than previous photos but still not the dream shot. We continued our hide and seek game till it became dark , at around  5pm. The day was over with decent but not great shots and while returning I had decided not to come back again next day, (the fear of pulmonary edema !!)

Resplendent Quetzal Male

A close up of male quetzal

Close up female quetzal

It was a very cold evening that day and very windy and despite  being under cover of three quilts ,we could hardly bear the cold. Next morning the plan was to leave the place after breakfast and we were told that we could try our luck at quetzal place one last time, if we wished. At 4 am alarm woke me up and Bhupinder was getting ready. I was wavering in my decision to stay back and finally decided to get out of bed and go once more in search of quetzal. But this time I was helped by our guide who carried some of my heavy gears. It was very crowded that day with at least ten to twelve birders and photographers .The bird activity was quite good but it kept changing the places quite often forcing us to move from place to place with our gears. There were three opportunities when the male quetzal was visible to photograph but each time it was under cover of foliage or some twigs came in between or the bird was very high up. Though we could get photographs, they were not  as good as what we wished to capture and finally we returned without that "clean image" of the male bird in open with a perfect background. But even mere seeing the bird is an experience by itself! Such resplendent colours, iridescent feathers and a long swaying tail, the calls of the quetzal and their flight , all of them being an experience in itself and a treat in nature.

Female quetzal, shining feathers

On an avocado tree, male quetzal

High up on the perch, 

This happens quite often in nature photography, we may never get a picture to our satisfaction. But the efforts, journey to achieve that perfect picture itself brings joy and everlasting memories. It is their territory and we are intruders and whatever they offer should be acceptable to us. One should enjoy seeing them in their natural habitat, observe their behaviour and take pictures of whatever is available in that circumstance. Even our life is also similar, we may most often not get many things we have imagined or strived to get, but should be happy with what comes in our way and enjoy the journey of life .

Waiting for quetzal

The team

A video of the bird