On a quest for the quetzal: trekking through the high reaches of the Guatemalan cloud forests, our author is on the lookout for that bijou of birds, the mythic feathered jewel, the ever-elusive resplendent quetzal.

• Author: Ortiz, Sergio

IN THE HALF-LIGHT OF DAWN, when the wake-up call in the Guatemalan cloud forests is a recital of contralto bird songs with the wind in the trees providing the bass notes, a presence is felt. Some describe it as mystical. Others say it's merely the feeling that comes from being an intruder in such a wet, humid greenhouse, where humans instinctively feel like trespassers being assessed by unseen creatures.

Whatever the reason, these Guatemalan high forests are eerie, a green belt of dense jungle crowning the Maya Forest--a region shared by Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize--that, along with Brazil's Matto Grosso, is considered one of the "lungs of the Americas" because their lustiness provides a large and essential portion of the Western Hemisphere's oxygen.

This forest is home to more than 350 bird species and almost 1,000 different mammals, including jaguars, pumas, tapirs, and monkeys, all thriving in a primeval wilderness overflowing with more than 1,600 plant varieties.

The name Guatemala derives from the Maya-Toltec word Goathemala, or "Land of Many Trees," and only a few minutes in one of its lush forests makes clear why the name is appropriate.

These cloud forests are ageless. Great civilizations flourished and collapsed in their foothills, but the forests lingered unsullied until modern demands began to drastically slash their vastness.

And it's here, usually at daybreak, when one of the most remarkable, eniginatic, and elusive birds in the world--the resplendent quetzal--makes a fleeting appearance to dispel one of the countless myths surrounding it: this avian Guatemalan treasure sings.

There is a belief, especially among Guatemalan Maya, most who have never seen a quetzal, that the bird their ancestors held sacred abruptly stopped singing when the first Spaniards set foot in the New World. But its song is a plaintive spurt of short whistles, much like humans use when calling a dog. When in flight, it sounds like a squawking parrot overdosed on amphetamines.

The song is unmistakable and unforgettable and in order to hear it one must trek up to the cloud forests of Guatemala, a country so steeped in quetzal lore that the bird is the national symbol and its visage graces the flag. Guatemalan currency takes its name, and even the map of the country--if you use your imagination--resembles a quetzal in profile.

The bird, a member of the trogon family, is endemic and exclusive to the cloud forests of Mesoamerica, the region reaching from the Mexican highlands of Chiapas and Oaxaca to the Panamanian isthmus. Some ornithologists consider it the most beautiful bird in the world, and because it is elusive, reclusive, temperamental, delicate, and shy with a strong distaste for captivity, it's in acute danger of extinction due to encroaching farmlands and to the slash-and-burn farming methods used in Latin America.

Quetzal watching calls for fortitude and patience. To reach the dense forest canopy that is the bird's home requires hours of tortuous uphill climbing through thick growth swarming with mosquitoes. Adding to the ordeal, the bird has a propensity to remain motionless for long periods and is so well concealed by its natural camouflage that one is fortunate to catch even the most fleeting glimpse of this feathered jewel.

On top of that, the quetzal seems to delight in its inscrutability, fluttering about in dark, moist woodlands that are dwindling by the day.

Although measures are being taken to improve its chances of survival, the bird's timidity, its need for wide-open spaces, and its delicate physiology do not adapt well to the rigors of confinement.

Jesus Estudillo Lopez, one of the foremost quetzal experts and a specialist in avian diseases, heads the conservation program at Mexico's National University. He has managed to do what once was deemed impossible: breed quetzals in captivity. Working in Chimalapas, a natural preserve between Chiapas and Oaxaca, Estudillo rates the survival of the...