Turquoise-browed Motmot
Turquoise-browed Motmot seen near Puerto Morelos, Mexico. From the rich palate of colors of its plumage to that really unusual pair of tail feathers, this is one of those birds that stops you in your tracks when you see it. So what’s with those two long tail feathers and why the peculiar wagging motion? It turns out that they use them to signal a predator that it's been spotted and that it’s not worth its effort to try to catch them because the Motmot will have taken flight before it gets close enough to do the bird any harm. That’s very useful because a vital part of a bird’s daily existence is endlessly balancing the amount of energy it expends with the calories its able to consume. Letting a predator know that it’s been seen and therefore has lost the element of surprise minimizes the number of times a Motmot has to take flight to avoid an attack that was going to fail anyway. This leaves more fuel in its tank for other activities it needs to perform for the survival of the species, such as reproducing. And, in the case of the Motmot, reproduction is no simple matter. In the fall, during the rainy season, the male and female take turns digging a tunnel six feet long in the dirt. The following spring they’ll come back to the tunnel to lay their eggs. This approach has two advantages. First, the soil is softer and easier to dig during the fall and, second, when they return to lay their eggs months later the tunnel won’t be freshly dug and therefore less attractive to predators. Motmots are not only incredibly good looking, but pretty clever as well!
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Turquoise-browed Motmot seen near Puerto Morelos, Mexico. From the rich palate of colors of its plumage to that really unusual pair of tail feathers, this is one of those birds that stops you in your tracks when you see it. So what’s with those two long tail feathers and why the peculiar wagging motion? It turns out that they use them to signal a predator that it's been spotted and that it’s not worth its effort to try to catch them because the Motmot will have taken flight before it gets close enough to do the bird any harm. That’s very useful because a vital part of a bird’s daily existence is endlessly balancing the amount of energy it expends with the calories its able to consume. Letting a predator know that it’s been seen and therefore has lost the element of surprise minimizes the number of times a Motmot has to take flight to avoid an attack that was going to fail anyway. This leaves more fuel in its tank for other activities it needs to perform for the survival of the species, such as reproducing. And, in the case of the Motmot, reproduction is no simple matter. In the fall, during the rainy season, the male and female take turns digging a tunnel six feet long in the dirt. The following spring they’ll come back to the tunnel to lay their eggs. This approach has two advantages. First, the soil is softer and easier to dig during the fall and, second, when they return to lay their eggs months later the tunnel won’t be freshly dug and therefore less attractive to predators. Motmots are not only incredibly good looking, but pretty clever as well!