By Stan Tekiela
Costa Rica is a wildlife photographers paradise. I just returned from 2 weeks of trekking through the hot and humid lowland tropical jungles and hiking high up in the cold cloud forest mountains, over 8,000-foot elevation, all in search of a wide variety of birds and mammals.
But for anyone who travels to this Central American country, there is one species of bird that everyone wants and desires to see and photograph. It is the Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno). This is a magnificent green bird that lives only in southern Mexico and parts of Central America in the high elevations of the cloud forests.
My group of intrepid photographers made the full day drive up to the cloud forests of Costa Rica. After settling in for the night at a local lodge with individual rooms/cabin perched on the edge of bluffs and ridges of the mountain side, we tried to get some sleep because early in the morning we were heading out in search of the Resplendent Quetzal.
The morning brought lots of clouds, which shouldn’t be a surprise because after all we were in a cloud forest habitat. It was chilly and I was happy that I brought along my fleece jacket as well as a rain jacket. We all stood around in the pre-dawn waiting for a local guide and a van to pick us up. Everyone was hopeful and excited at the possibility of seeing and capturing some images of this amazing bird.
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