Trips to Guatemala

QUETZAL

Among the 700 species of birds registered in Guatemala, perhaps most important they are the turkey of piece (Oreophasis derbianus) and the quetzal (moccino Pharomacrus).

The quetzal is the national bird of Guatemala, declared like so in 1871 by the then president of the nation, Miguel the Distinguished Garci'as. It symbolizes freedom, autonomy and independence because it cannot live in captivity. The quetzal gives name to the currency of the country, to the maximum national decoration (Order of the Quetzal) and to the second more important city of the country, Quetzaltenango (“Place of Quetzals”),

This bird can be observed in the region of the Verapaces, mainly in Verapaz Discharge, since their cloudy forests own the ideal conditions for the habitat of the quetzal. In this region it is possible to observe it in the Biotope of the Quetzal, known also like Biotope Mario Dary Creek; in Purulhá, the Mountain range of the Mines and in the Cuchumatanes, the Mountain range of Chamá. It belongs to the family of trogones and according to the experts, it is the most beautiful unit of this group of birds.

The quetzal is characterized for being a great hunter and to settle calmly to be long time on the lookout. Its flight is undulating with intermittent and sudden beating of wings. It has a special color in his plumage: the chest and the abdomen are of crimson red color in the males (in the females it is only the abdomen), the rest is of green color, having some pens of black color in center and underneath the tail. This one, very long (it gets to measure up to 1.05 ms in the males), confers its majestic aspect to him in flight.

Virgilio Rodriguez Macal, Guatemalan writer, in its book the Mansion of the Bird describes it thus to Serpent: “Gug (quetzal) had in its chest the color of the blood, with just a little bit of target. And its body was of a inidentificado, between blue, golden and green color, as if the rainbow lived eternally in him, scattered in thousand pieces”.

The birds in the Mayan culture

Characterized by its high level of knowledge in mathematical, astronomy and architecture during the periods of Preclásico, Classic and Classic Delayed, the Mayan civilization was also distinguished by its politeísta religion and for being faithful worshippers of the elements and beings of the nature. These were represented in the multiple wakes and monoliths that are witnesses of the splendor, Mayan thought and cosmogonía.

Many Gods were represented in their paintings by different animal that conferred qualities to them or values that adopted the soldiers, priests and noble. The birds comprised of the Mayan culture they showed and it in the art. Its more frequent association is with the sky if they are birds that nest in the trees, or with the entrance to the infraworld if they are aquatic birds.

One of the most represented in the Mayan art is the Celestial Bird, Bird Serpent or emplumada Serpent, that thought that it inhabited the glasses of the four trees that marked to the cardinal points and the tree of the axis mundi or Earth center. This bird, multicoloured and of long pens, could have inspired by the pens of guacamaya (Altar Macao) that was associated with the God of the Sun or Kimich Kamko, the toucan (Ramphastus sulfuratus) and the quetzal (moccino Pharomacrus).

The plumario art was one of the several forms of expression that used the Mayans. Birds of showy plumages, admired and venerated by the Mayans provided with the raw material necessary to express their emotions and sensations through hairdos, E layers ornamentation even applied to arms like shields. In these manifestations, the Mayans expressed their identification, respect and veneration towards the birds. 

In the Popol Vuh, sacred book of quichés, the Gods, before the formation of the world, dressed blue and green pens; and the mythological heroes Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué, dresses with pens of papagayo, defeated the gentlemen of the infraworld,

Of equal way, in the historical part of the text, the pens were signs of royalty and social hierarchy, at the same time as a form of tribute and offering. The tornasoladas pens of quetzal tail were reserved for the elite: prominent Gods, gentlemen and soldiers whose attire reflected their power in front of the town.