Family Trogonidae
Resplendent Quetzal
Pharomachrus mocinno
In Spanish: Quetzal (Coludo)
- Resident
The Savegre valley oaks at San Gerardo de Dota, then Monteverde. With a guide, all year.
"Where can we see a quetzal?" It is the question we get every week, and one look at a male explains it. The green plumes trailing behind him are longer than the rest of his body, and on the longest birds they reach about a metre.
We send people first to San Gerardo de Dota, in the Highlands. The quetzal walks leave the lodge gates at first light, and the valley's guides know which wild avocado trees are fruiting right now, because that is where the birds feed. A local guide finds in a morning what takes a visitor a week. For the quetzal we book one every time.
Where to see it
- Hotspot page
- Named place
- Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
- San Gerardo de Dota and the Savegre valleythe quetzal walks start at the lodge gates at first light, and the valley guides know the fruiting avocado trees.
- Los Quetzales National Parkthe reason people walk up to the oak forest on the ridge; on our Nature Birding Tour a professional guide takes you through the park for it.
- Cerro de la Muerte and the km 70 lookoutssometimes at the hummingbird garden at km 70.
- Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valleyit lives in the park's forest.
- Poás Volcano National Park and its slopesit turns up here with luck.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserveone of the two birds people ask us about here, with the Three-wattled Bellbird; a guided hike is the best chance at both.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reservethe quieter reserve, where our Monteverde trips spend the guided quetzal morning.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverdeone of the two birds to hope for on the trail, with the bellbird.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Braulio Carrillo National Parkthe park's own description names it.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
Nearby lodges
Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.
- 1
Savegre Lodge0.9 km from San Gerardo de DotaSee the lodge - 2
Dantica Cloud Forest Lodge4.2 km from Los Quetzales National ParkSee the lodge - 3Photo comingParaíso Quetzal Lodge0.1 km from Cerro de la MuerteSee the lodge
- 4
Hotel Quelitales7.8 km from Tapantí National Park, above the Orosí valley (off the map)See the lodge - 5Photo comingPoas Volcano Lodge8.8 km from Poás Volcano National Park (off the map)See the lodge
How to recognise it
About 36 to 40 cm, a little longer than a 30 cm school ruler, and that is before the male's plumes. Those plumes are not his tail. They are his upper tail coverts, the feathers that lie over the tail and hide it. He is iridescent green, a green that shifts as the light moves, with a red lower breast and belly, a white undertail and a rounded crest, the tuft on the head, shaped like a helmet. The female has a bronze-green head and a grey belly and bill. Watch it feed: it hovers, or stalls in mid-air, to pluck fruit near a branch tip. The song is a run of full, mellow, slurred notes.
Where it lives
Very wet forest at high elevation, from about 900 to 3,200 m. In Costa Rica that means the cloud forest of the Highlands: the oaks of the Savegre valley and Los Quetzales National Park, the wet Talamanca slope at Tapantí, the slopes of Poás and the reserves at Monteverde. The birds here belong to their own subspecies, shared with western Panama and a little smaller than the birds further north.
When to see it
With a guide, all year.
Trips that find it
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica9 to 10 nightsSee the trip
- Dancing with Quetzals11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Eco-Zones11 nightsSee the trip
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica's Caribbean9 nightsSee the trip
- Caribbean Lowlands Birding Tour11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Northern Zone11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula11 nightsSee the trip
- Birding in Costa Rica's Top Three Destinations9 nightsSee the trip
- The Southern Highlands and Pacific9 nightsSee the trip
- Nature Birding TourSee the trip
- Costa Rica's Top Birding Spots11 nightsSee the trip
- Costa Rica Classic Birding, All Inclusive8 nightsSee the trip
Tell us when you are travelling and our team in Costa Rica builds the trip around the birds you want to see.
Plan my birding tripHow we know this 1 sources, each read on the date shown
- Wikipedia: Resplendent quetzal read 4 November 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resplendent_quetzal