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The quetzal plays a central role in Mesoamerican mythology and is associated with the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. The word quetzal was originally used for just the resplendent quetzal , the long-tailed quetzal of Guatemala , (more specifically the area of Northern Guatemala known as the Petén) which is the national bird and the name of the ...
The resplendent quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) is a small bird found in Central America and southern Mexico that lives in tropical forests, particularly montane cloud forests. They are part of the family Trogonidae and have two recognized subspecies , P. m. mocinno and P. m. costaricensis .
The male resplendent quetzal boasts iridescent blue-green tail feathers measuring up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) long that were prized by the Maya elite. [12] The blue-green feathers symbolized vegetation and the sky, both symbols of life for the ancient Maya, while the bright red feathers of the bird's chest symbolized fire. [12]
The most important of feathers in central Mexico were the long green feathers of the resplendent quetzal which were reserved for deities and the emperor. [15] One reason for their rarity was that quetzals could not be domesticated as they died in captivity. Instead wild birds were caught, plucked and released. [19] Other tropical birds were ...
Trogons range in size from the 23 cm (9.1 in), 40 g (1.4 oz) scarlet-rumped trogon to the 40 cm (16 in), 210 g (7.4 oz) resplendent quetzal (not including the male quetzal's 3-foot-long (0.91 m) tail streamers). Their legs and feet are weak and short, and trogons are essentially unable to walk beyond a very occasional shuffle along a branch.
In the Maya area he was approximately equivalent to Kukulkan and Gukumatz, names that also roughly translate as "feathered serpent" in different Mayan languages. In the era following the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , a number of records conflated Quetzalcoatl with Ce Acatl Topiltzin , a ruler of the mythico-historic city ...
The flag is divided in four parts, red, yellow, white and black, each colour representing Xinca people, Garifuna people, Maya people, and Ladino people, respectively. [3] These colours are also part of the Qʼanil, a Maya symbol in which each color represents a point of the compass, an element of nature and a part of the human being.
The object's identification as a quetzalapanecayotl (a quetzal bird feather headdress) is attributed to American anthropologist Zelia Nuttall in her research paper "Standard or Head-dress?". [12] [13] Nuttall put forth the theory that the objects represent a quetzal bird with its wings extended, tail pointing upwards, and head pointing ...