A photo published by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, affiliated with Cornell University in the American city of Washington, of the “bright quetzal” bird perched on the branch of a fruitful tree in the Burassi National Natural Park in Colombia, located within a valley full of forests and treachery at the bottom.
The bright quetzal is a bird of the Nahasite family. It lives in the region extending from southern Mexico to Panama, where it migrates between forests at different altitudes to feed and reproduce. The bright quetzal bird is known for its brightly colored feathers, and perhaps because of the beauty of its colors, it was widely present in the myths and folk stories of the indigenous people of Central America. For the same reason, it has become the national bird of modern Guatemala, where its image is found on the Guatemalan flag and coat of arms, and its currency is named after it. National Authority known as GTQ for short.
Although the bright quetzal is a sacred bird for many indigenous communities, and is the national bird of Colombia and one of its national symbols, seeing it has become more difficult now… due to the decline in bird numbers in Latin America in general, including the countries where these birds officially symbolize and occupy… A space in its symbolic popular memory.
(Image from the New York Times service)
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