The quetzal's feathers are not actually made of green pigment. They have tiny structures that bend light, like a prism, so they look glowing green from one angle and almost gold from another. When sunlight hits a flying quetzal, it shimmers like a jewel.
Those long tail feathers belong only to the male, and they grow extra long in the breeding season. He uses them to show off to female quetzals. Imagine being a bird the size of a magpie with a streamer twice your own length trailing behind you - that's the quetzal.
Quetzals love a fruit called the wild avocado. They swallow the whole avocado, then later cough up the big seed somewhere new. That makes the quetzal a tree-planter: many of the trees in the cloud forest grow exactly where a quetzal coughed up a seed years ago.
Quetzals are shy and hard to spot in the wild. Birdwatchers from all over the world travel to Monteverde and other Costa Rican cloud forests for a glimpse. The best season to see them is around April and May, when the males are showing off their tails.