Precious Feathers
This beautiful male white-tipped quetzal was nesting with its mate behind one of the El Dorado Nature Reserve's huts in Colombia. We also met them a few times during hikes in the forest. They are like large green forest spirits and have a beautiful metallic plumage.
The translations of "quetzal" from Nahuatl, the Aztec language, to English vary a bit. Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec deity, is literally translated to something like "serpent of precious feathers" with "coatl" translating to serpent. The full name of the related resplendent quetzal seems to be Quetzaltototl with "tototl" translating to bird. My completely amateur translatation of "quetzal" with no knowledge of the language is therefore "precious feathers" which I think is an apt name for these bird species.
Sources of translation: https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl#Etymology
To be able to photograph in these dark forest conditions, I had to learn to go far below my comfort shutter speed of usually 1/500 s with the 600 mm (900 mm effective) telephoto lens. With some (forced) practice I was able to capture images like this one at 1/100 s handheld. My gimbal tripod was not an option, as it slowed me down too much during hikes, and the ability to react quickly was more important to me than deleting fewer blurry photos after each day.
Pharomachrus fulgidus | White-tipped quetzal | Glanztrogon
Nikon D500, Sigma 150-600mm C, 600 mm, f/6.3, 1/100 s, ISO 2200, handheld
#bird #nature #photography #green #colombia#digiKam #darktable
