Lesson's Motmot: An Incredible Opportunity

A motmot and its beautiful tail were seen in a coffee grove in Belize.

Lesson's Motmot, Momotus lessonii

This is yet again another bird from Belize. The reason there are so many was because the purpose of this trip was birding. Other than the king vultures on the first day which were sitting out in the open waiting to be spotted (oh and they had red heads and black and white plumage. Only slightly obvious.) and the many orioles, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, and chachalacas around the resort, most of the birds were spotted by guides. We didn't know much about the birds in the first place. This trip was very valuable (look out for more Belize post. I'm hoping for a king vulture and chachalaca post soon (see my topics coming soon post)!

My Final Chance for a Motmot         

One can clearly see its rackets on a motmot's tail.

This bird really told me what a great opportunity I had coming to Belize. At home, when my mother (I would like to take this moment to thank her for planning pretty much everything) and I were flipping through the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America, we noticed this bird and absolutely wanted to see it.  On our last full day at the resort, we had our last tour, the sunrise birding tour and had not seen this bird we were hoping to see. I'm not sure if we did ask where we could see motmots. When we started on our tour, we had already seen many social flycatchers and a few black headed saltators. Yet, that was about all we saw and we were starting to lose hope. Once we saw the coffee grove, we decided to give it a chance. How right we were. Our guide, hoping to show us a Lesson's Motmot, imitated the bird. I could finally tell how they got their name. And before long, he found one, sitting behind a few leaves, but other than that, right out in the open. It would have been nice if we had seen this by ourselves and I don't particularly enjoy birding with people who I don't know well, but if that was the case, I would have never been able to have seen anything at that grove. I still used this as a time to take pictures and I was happy with what I got. We were even able to watch it fly to the coffee bushes. Along with a Lesson's Motmot, we had finally seen a Green Jay (Ugh. My mother took the better picture. :)) and caught a glimpse of a Red Lored Parrot. We had left, successful. However, when we came again to try and find it, the bugs drove as away!

Identification and Information (Peterson Field Guide)

Size: 16 inches (41 centimeters)

Call: A deep woot woot or mot mot, sounding like a distant dog

Description: A black mask, electric blue and black crown, long tail with rackets at the end, lime green wings and an emerald breast with two black dots

Habitat: Low and middle levels in any forest habitat, sometimes seen in city parks and coffee plantations

Diet: Mostly insects (Encyclopedia Brittanica)

Other: It is said that the Lesson's Motmot bites off its tail feathers to form the rackets on its tail.

Last Note

I know it can be very frustrating when you don't spot a bird, or worse (as in my case) be the last one to see it and shown by a parent or friend, not even by the guide. I hate it when that happens. If you repeatedly have this problem, you can still make up for it with a camera, as I did with the orange breasted falcon, and the Lesson's motmot. For many birds, prioritize yourself with zoom if you are unable to buy a DSLR with high zoom. If you don't see a bird first, then try to get the best picture. Even if you spot a bird, try to get the best picture. A hint, though spotting a beautiful bird or rare bird is nice, it is even more glorifying to identify the bird and take the best picture. The more pictures you have, the more blog material you could possibly write! Stay tuned for more and don't forget to check out the Look Out for These Topics Coming Soon page, linked here.