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)!
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!
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.
My Final Chance for a Motmot
One can clearly see its rackets on a motmot's tail. |
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.