[Aztlan] Chac or Principal Bird Deity

[Karen Bassie]

Lawrence Bardawil (1976: The Principal Bird Deity in Maya Art: An 
Iconographic Study of Form and Meaning) grouped together a number of 
supernatural birds that he referred to as the Principal Bird Deity. Such 
birds appear in a number of contexts, perching on trees, serpents, sky 
bands, or the Milky Way crocodile. While these birds exhibit several 
common features, such as wings in the form of serpents and the talons of 
a bird of prey, they also exhibit subtle but distinct characteristics 
that indicate they are not all the same bird. One of these supernatural 
birds wears the headdress of Itzamnaaj and he is the avian form of this 
creator deity. And I will go to my grave arguing that the Itzamnaaj bird 
is based on Herpetotheres cachinnans (the laughing falcon or guaco). 
Nick Hellmuth in his 1987 dissertation (The Surface of the Under Water 
World) identified the Tikal stucco mask as an Itzamnaaj bird.

The supernatural bird perched on the corn plant on the Tablet of the 
Foliated Cross and the supernatural bird perched on the tree on the 
Palenque Tablet of the Cross and sarcophagus lid are distinct from the 
Itzamnaaj bird. I think that the term Principal Bird Deity should be 
retired.