Montezuma and his fondness for birds

Even though he had some bad habits and was capable of great cruelty, I still feel a sympathetic fondness for Montezuma, the head of the Aztec nation back in the 1500’s. His bad behavior included decapitating his enemies and sacrificing maidens.

On the other hand, he had a great fondness for birds. And anyone who loves birds can’t be all bad.

Because he enjoyed birds, Montezuma built a number of aviaries and had a staff of 300 servants to take care of them. He ruled from a beautiful city on the site of a great lake, with magnificent floating gardens and towering pyramids. Today, Mexico City is located on this site.

According to Hernan Cortez, the Spanish conquistador who arrived in Mexico in 1519, the birds at Montezuma’s aviaries included “everything from the royal eagle and other birds of great size, down to tiny birds of many-coloured plumage.”

Bernal Diaz went into more detail on the birds: “Parrots of many colours, beautifully marked ducks and birds with long stilted legs with body, wings and tail all red.” There were also blue-throated hummingbirds, vermillion flycatchers, copper-tailed trogons, green jays, summer tanagers and wrens.

These birds were housed in a giant House of Birds, an elegant structure of wood and bamboo. In 1520, Cortez, determined to conquer the country, fought with the Aztecs and burned their many palaces to the ground. He also put the torch to the House of Birds and that building went up in flames.

A pitiful few birds burst through the burning latticework and escaped the fire. All others perished.

So far as I know, only one bird has been named for that long-ago Aztec ruler – the Montezuma oropendola, which translates to Montezuma’s “golden pendulum”. I know of no bird named for Cortez, which seems fair enough to me.