Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa)

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Turquoise-browed motmot
E. s. apiaster, Honduras
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Momotidae
Genus: Eumomota
P.L. Sclater, 1858
Species:
E. superciliosa
Binomial name
Eumomota superciliosa
(Sandbach, 1837)

The turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) is a colourful, medium-sized bird of the motmot family, Momotidae. It is the only species in its genus Eumomota. It inhabits Central America from south-east Mexico (mostly the Yucatán 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 has a preference for higher tree diversity and richness, alongside a low open canopy and dense understory.[2] It also appears to prefer dry forest. This is in contrast to the other motmot known to inhabit the Yucatán, Lesson’s motmot, which prefers moist forest. As a result, their respective distributions allow ecologists to map the process of aridification induced by anthropogenic climate change. Some literature thus considers the turquoise-browed motmot to be a bioindicator.[3]

A torogoz in Joya de Cerén Mayan ruins in El Salvador

The bird is 34 cm (13 in) long and weighs 65 g (2.3 oz). It has a mostly grey-blue body with a rufous back and belly. There is a bright blue strip 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 rackets and the bare feather shafts, also classified as wires,[4] are longer than in other motmots. Although it is often said that motmots pluck the barbs off their tail to create the racketed shape, this is not true; the barbs are weakly attached and fall off due to abrasion with substrates and with routine preening.[5]

To reproduce, they lay white eggs (3–6) in a long tunnel nest in an earth bank, or sometimes in a quarry or fresh-water well. However, if this is not available, they will transition to nesting in inaccessible limestone crevices in cenotes or caves. It excavates nesting sites in March to avoid the hotter temperatures. Females lay in 48 hour intervals with a lay time of 24-56 days and hatch time from 16-20 days depending on the bird's location. A shorter lay and hatch time is observed in more populated areas.[6]

Behavior

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They are often found perching in the open on wires and fences. From these perches, they are seen using a "sit-and-wait" foraging technique[7] as it scans for prey, such as insects and small reptiles. Insects are a large portion of its diet as an opportunistic insectivore. It consumes its prey with a flat, wide, and serrated bill.[8]

Unlike most bird species, where only males express elaborate traits, the turquoise-browed motmot expresses the extraordinary racketed tail in both sexes. Research indicates that the monomorphic trait[9] has evolved to function differently for the sexes. Males use their tails as sexual signals, as males with longer tails have greater pairing success and reproductive success.[10] However, there is no change in pairing success, reproductive performance, or fledging advantage found in females.[11] In addition to this function, the tail is used by both sexes in a wag-display, whereby the tail is moved back-and-forth in a pendulous fashion, often accompanied by clucking vocalizations.[12] The wag-display is performed in a context unrelated to mating: both sexes perform the wag-display in the presence of a predator, and the display is thought to confer naturally selected benefits by communicating to the predator that it has been seen and that pursuit will not result in capture. This form of interspecific communication is referred to as a pursuit-deterrent signal.[13] The motmot can also be seen performing its tail-wag behavior for a short while during the breeding season, before feeding its young; these are the only documented instances of the behavior being displayed sans vocalizations and the presence of predators.[14]

Its call is nasal, croaking and far-carrying.[15]

Cultural relevance

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The turquoise-browed motmot is a well-known bird in its range. It has acquired a number of local names including guardabarranco ("ravine-guard") in Nicaragua, torogoz in El Salvador (based on its call) and pájaro reloj or pajaro toh in Mayan ("clock bird") in the Yucatán, based on its habit of wagging its tail like a pendulum. Additionally, it is known as the "Guardian of the Cenote" as it rests by the cenote's ledge.[16] In Costa Rica it is also known as momoto cejiceleste or the pájaro bobo ("foolish bird"), owing to its tendency to allow humans to come very near it without flying away.

The bird was also culturally important for the Mayans, as its habit of nesting in cenotes (which they believed to be portals to the underworld) led them to see the motmot as a guardian of the underworld. Mayan legends also tell the origin story of the bird’s tail; they believed that the motmot was once a conceited bird who refused to help other forest inhabitants find food or shelter during a storm. Instead, he went to sleep in a cenote until the ill weather passed. When the sky was clear, he flew out to reunite with the other birds, only to be laughed at. Unbeknownst to him, he had slept in a crevice with his tail hanging out, such that it became ravaged by the storm. Ashamed by what was left of his tail – a meager two feathers – he flew back into the forest, never to be seen again.[16]


References

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  1. ^ BirdLife International (2020). "Eumomota superciliosa". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020 e.T22682992A163630124. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22682992A163630124.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Orejuela, Jorge (1980-06-01). "Niche Relationships Between Turquoise-browed and Blue-crowned Motmots in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico". Wilson Bulletin. 92 (2).
  3. ^ Lopez, Dayron; Fonda, Federica; Monti, Flavio; Dal Zotto, Matteo (2023-02-02). "Density Estimates and Habitat Preferences of Two Sympatric Bird Species as Potential Bioindicators of Tropical Forest Alterations". Diversity. 15 (2): 208. Bibcode:2023Diver..15..208L. doi:10.3390/d15020208. ISSN 1424-2818.
  4. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007-04-01). "Racketed tail of the male and female turquoise-browed motmot: male but not female tail length correlates with pairing success, performance, and reproductive success". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61 (6): 911–918. Bibcode:2007BEcoS..61..911M. doi:10.1007/s00265-006-0320-z. ISSN 1432-0762.
  5. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007). "Lack of melanized keratin and barbs that fall off: how the racketed tail of the turquoise-browed motmot Eumomota superciliosa is formed". Journal of Avian Biology. 38 (2). Nordic Society Oikos: 139–143. doi:10.1111/j.2007.0908-8857.04055.x.
  6. ^ Scott, Peter E.; Martin, Robert F. (1983). "Reproduction of the Turquoise-Browed Motmot at Archaeological Ruins in Yucatán". Biotropica. 15 (1): 8–14. Bibcode:1983Biotr..15....8S. doi:10.2307/2387991. ISSN 0006-3606. JSTOR 2387991.
  7. ^ Orejuela, Jorge (1980-06-01). "Niche Relationships Between Turquoise-browed and Blue-crowned Motmots in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico". Wilson Bulletin. 92 (2).
  8. ^ Orejuela, Jorge (1980-06-01). "Niche Relationships Between Turquoise-browed and Blue-crowned Motmots in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico". Wilson Bulletin. 92 (2).
  9. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007-04-01). "Racketed tail of the male and female turquoise-browed motmot: male but not female tail length correlates with pairing success, performance, and reproductive success". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61 (6): 911–918. Bibcode:2007BEcoS..61..911M. doi:10.1007/s00265-006-0320-z. ISSN 1432-0762.
  10. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007). "Racketed tail of the male and female turquoise-browed motmot: male but not female tail length correlates with pairing success, performance, and reproductive success". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61 (6). Springer-Verlag: 911–918. Bibcode:2007BEcoS..61..911M. doi:10.1007/s00265-006-0320-z. S2CID 8966707.
  11. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007-04-01). "Racketed tail of the male and female turquoise-browed motmot: male but not female tail length correlates with pairing success, performance, and reproductive success". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61 (6): 911–918. Bibcode:2007BEcoS..61..911M. doi:10.1007/s00265-006-0320-z. ISSN 1432-0762.
  12. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2006). "Predator-elicited visual signal: why the turquoise-browed motmot wag-displays its racketed tail". Behavioral Ecology. 17 (4). International Society for Behavioral Ecology: 547–553. doi:10.1093/beheco/arj064.
  13. ^ Murphy, Troy G. (2007). "Dishonest 'preemptive' pursuit-deterrent signal? Why the turquoise-browed motmot wags its tail before feeding nestlings". Animal Behaviour. 73 (6). Springer-Verlag: 965–970. Bibcode:2007AnBeh..73..965M. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2006.10.020. S2CID 6828682.
  14. ^ Murphy, Troy (April 17, 2006). "Predator-elicited visual signal: why the turquoise-browed motmot wag-displays its racketed tail". Behavioral Ecology. 17 (4): 547–553. doi:10.1093/beheco/arj064. Retrieved July 23, 2026.
  15. ^ Bird and nature videos (2023-04-18). Turquoise Browed Motmot call. Retrieved 2026-07-23 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ a b "El Aullador" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2026-07-23.
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