Turquoise-browed Motmot
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| iTurquoise-browed Motmot | ||||||||||||||
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| Eumomota superciliosa (Sandbach, 1837) |
The Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) is a colourful, medium-sized bird of the motmot family, Momotidae. It inhabits Central America from south-east Mexico (mostly the Yucatan peninsula), to Costa Rica, where it is common and not considered threatened. It lives in fairly open habitats such as forest edge, gallery forest and scrubland. It is more conspicuous than other motmots, often perching in the open on wires and fences. From these perches it scans for prey such as insects and small reptiles. The eggs are laid in a burrow in an earth bank or sometimes in a quarry.
The bird is 34 cm long and weighs about 65 grams. It has a mostly green body with a rufous back and belly. There is a pale blue stripe above the eye and a blue-bordered black patch on the throat. The flight feathers and upperside of the tail are blue. The tips of the tail feathers are shaped like racquets and the shafts are longer than in other motmots. It often swings its tail like a pendulum, giving rise to its nickname in the Yucatan, pájaro reloj ("clock bird"). The call is nasal, croaking and far-carrying.
The Turquoise-browed Motmot is the national bird of Nicaragua, where it is known as the guardabarranco ("ravine-guard").
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Eumomota superciliosa. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Susan C. L. Fogden, Michael Fogden and Patricia Fogden (2005). A Photographic Guide to Birds of Costa Rica. New Holland. ISBN 1-84330-960-2.
- Steve N. G. Howell and Sophie Webb (1994). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854012-4.
- Robert S. Ridgely and John A. Gwynne Jr. (1989). A Guide to the Birds of Panama with Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02512-6.
