Habitat
Canopy and subcanopy of undisturbed, humid, epiphyte-laden vergreen montane forest, cloud-forest, thickly vegetated ravines and cliffs, park-like clearings and pastures, and open areas with scattered trees adjacent to forest. From900 - 2,275 m, and up to 3,200 m in the south of its range.
Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) [XC274686]
by Peter Boesman from Mirador de Quetzales, km70 Cerro de la Muerte, San Jos\u00e9, Costa Rica (song)
Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) [XC334837]
by Richard E. Webster from Campamento El Triunfo, Chiapas, Mexico (call)
Nest
A deep, unlined cavity in a decaying trunk or stump.
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Crested Quetzal (Pharomachrus antisianus), with which has sometimes been considered conspecific. Subspecies White-tipped Quetzal (Pharomachrus fulgidus) may belong to this superspecies. Synonyms of mocinno include paradiseus and resplendens. Species name sometimes mispelt mocino.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
mocinno de la Llave, 1832 - Southern Mexico (Oaxaca and Chiapas), Guatemala, Honduras, eastern El Salvador and north-central Nicaragua.
costaricensis Cabanis, 1869 - Costa Rica (except Cordillera de Guanacaste) and western highlands of Panama (eastern, at least formerly, to Veraguas).