Photo courtesy of Rob Cahill

Blue-crowned Motmot

Momotus momota
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Momotidae
Listen:
Sound courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Did you know?

Protecting intact, natural forests near coffee farms is important for species like the Blue-crowned Motmot, which lives in shade coffee plantations and nearby forests.

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General Description

The male Blue-crowned Motmot is a mid-sized bird about 17 inches long, with an unusually long tail accounting for half of that length. Though this motmot's tail is particularly long, two tail feathers grow noticeably longer; the tip of each of these two special feathers is shaped like a racket or a paddle. Experiments suggest that the motmot swings these special tail feathers like a pendulum to let a nearby predator know that it has lost the advantage of surprise.

The bird's coloring is variable, depending on subspecies. The upperparts may be green or olive green, turning to blue on the lower tail, while the underparts may be green or rufous. Some individuals display a chestnut collar. This long-tailed motmot's crown is colored by rich hues of blue or black with a turquoise and violet border. Its broad black eyemask tapers to a point on the cheek, and its black bill is curved slightly downward and strongly serrated. Females are slightly smaller than males and have identical plumage.

Blue-crowned Motmots tend to perch motionless and inconspicuously in trees, and observers may only become aware of their presence when hearing their soft, deep, double hoot, or when they swing their long tail feathers.

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Habitat & Migration

Blue-crowned motmots are neotropicalA tropical region south of the Tropic of Cancer in the western hemisphere, including southern Mexico, Central and South America.
More... resident birds, native to Mexico, Caribbean islands Trinidad and Tobago, Central America, and South America including northwest Peru, southeast Brazil, northwest Argentina and eastward to Paraguay. They are very adaptable birds, frequenting rain forests, wooded ravines, hedgerows, shady gardens, semi-open and shady second-growth, and drier woodland areas, as well as coffee plantations. These birds do not migrate but do move around locally while foraging, breeding, and roosting.

Blue-crowned Motmots forage in the middle layers of trees where they eat insects and fruits from the foliage. On the ground, they pursue large spiders, earthworms, insects, snails, small lizards and snakes, small mammals, and occasionally small birds and nestlings. They also visit feeders for bananas and bread. They have been known to accompany army ants, capturing small creatures attempting to escape from the aggressive insects.

Blue-crowned Motmots excavate nest burrows with well-concealed entrances in a bank of earth or in the side of a pit or a hollow in the ground. A new nest burrow is dug each season, and nest building may begin months before the start of nesting, probably because the ground is softer in the wet autumn season than in the dry spring season that precedes breeding. Little is known about egg incubation or nestling behavior because of the difficulty of gaining access to the nest chamber.

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The Coffee Connection

Blue-crowned Motmots have been observed in many different types of shade coffee plantations, including plantations in Guatemala, Mexico, and Panama, but they have not been documented in sun coffeeCoffee grown without the cover of a forest canopy or planted shade. This usually requires intense management and chemical inputs.
More... plantations. Blue-crowned Motmots were not observed in shade-coffee plantations in Peru or Amazonian Ecuador although they were present in intact (undisturbed) forest habitats in these areas.

In Guatemala, these birds were found in forest remnantA patch of forest left after the area has been cleared for other purposes.
More... areas and in cardamomA flavorful herb grown like coffee as a shaded understory plant.
More... plantations with a diverse canopy of native shade trees, as well as more intensely managed shade coffee plantations dominated by planted GliricidiaFlowering, deciduous tropical trees used to provide shade in coffee plantations. Some shade coffee birds use Gliricidia flowers and nectar.
More... species. This study did not find them in sun coffee plantations or managed shade coffee plantations dominated by IngaFlowering tropical trees commonly used to provide shade in coffee plantations. Some shade coffee birds use Inga flowers and nectar.
More... species; rusticThe coffee-growing system in which the original tree layer is left intact and coffee bushes replace the original undergrowth.
More... shade coffee plantations were not monitored for the motmot's presence.

Blue-crowned Motmots in western Chiapas, Mexico were one of the most frequently observed species in rustic coffee plantations out of a total of 182 bird species studied. In this area, they were most numerous in lower montaneHighland areas located below the subalpine zone. Montane regions generally have cooler temperatures and higher rainfall than the adjacent lowland regions.
More... rainforest, followed by rustic coffee, higher-elevation montane rainforest (over 3,600 feet), and shaded monocultureThe cultivation of a single crop, such as coffee, on a farm or in a region. Also may refer to the planting of one tree species to provide shade cover for a crop.
More... coffee plantations (where planted Inga trees provide little shade), respectively. However, an earlier study done in eastern Chiapas, Mexico found these motmots were present in equal numbers in rustic coffee plantations and the less diverse shade coffee plantations dominated by Inga. The potentially conflicting results related to this motmot's preference for diverse types of shade coffee habitat may be due to variations in factors such as location, shade cover, and plantation management practices, as well as the dates the studies were performed.

In the tropics, mixed-species flocks often follow swarms of army ants, eating the insects disturbed by the ants. Occasionally, a Blue-crowned Motmot will join these flocks. In Panama, this motmot was seen at ant swarms in intact forests slightly more often than in traditionally managed polyculturePolyculture is the practice of cultivating multiple crops in a given area, in an effort to imitate a natural ecosystem. In coffee polycultures, some of the natural forest is removed; the remaining trees and other plants provide shade and offer food and medicinal crops.
More... shade coffee plantations located adjacent to the intact forest. However, this bird was much less likely to be found in shade coffee habitat distant from intact forests (1 or 2 miles away). The ant swarms themselves were also more likely to be found in shade coffee plantations near forest. These results suggest the importance of protecting intact natural forest areas near shade coffee plantations; even this adaptable but forest-loving species was less likely to visit isolated shade coffee plantations.

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Conservation Status

The Blue-crowned Motmot is fairly common over much of its range. Globally, this bird has been given the status of "Least Concern" by the International Union for Conservation of NatureA global environment network which publishes a "Red List" indicating the conservation status of plants and animals. Status on the “Red List” increases from Least Concern to Near Threatened to Vulnerable to Endangered to Critically Endangered.
More... (IUCN). One factor influencing local populations of breeding Blue-crowned Motmots is the availability of suitable nest sites. Overall, this motmot is adaptable and can survive in diverse habitat types, however, it does seem to prefer forest. Based on available information, it uses a variety of shade coffee habitats, but has not been documented in sun coffee habitat. These findings may indicate that cultivating shade-grown coffee rather than sun coffee may provide more resources for the Blue-crowned Motmot.

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