Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
MOMOTIDAE - MOTMOTS
Two Paraguayan species in two genera in this exclusively Neotropical family. The earliest fossil motmots date from the Oligocene and the family reaches its greatest diversity in Central America. They share with other Coraciiformes a unique middle ear ossicle and certain aspects of leg musculature. There is no sexual dimorphism.
Motmots have a long bill with a downcurved culmen and serrated cutting edges. The tongue is long. The tarsi are short, and the middle and inner toe are almost completely fused. One toe faces backwards. The plumage is generally bright, mostly green (providing excellent camouflage in forest environments) and with black markings on the chin and throat. The wings are short and rounded and the graduated tail spatulate in one species and squared in the other - the former being more typical of the family as a whole. Motmots spend long periods perched motionless and are easily overlooked, but may move the tail like a pendulum when anxious. The call is a soft hooting, reaching greatest intensity at dawn and dusk, when pairs may duet and numerous groups of birds may call together.
The diet is omnivorous, with fruit, invertebrates and small vertebrates being taken. Large prey is often beaten against a branch and pellets of indigestible material may be regurgitated. Motmots nest in a burrow that is dug into a soft substrate by both parents - the bill being used to loosen the earth and the legs to kick it out of the tunnel entrance. Occupied burrows show two longitudinal grooves along the entrance tunnel formed by the legs of adult birds. Birds enter head first and leave backwards so as not to damage the delicate tail. Eggs are laid on the bare floor of the chamber, but nest sanitation is not practiced and it rapidly fills with a mixture of faeces, feathers and remains of food items. Eggs are shiny, white and rounded and are incubated by both sexes. Chicks are altricial and nidicolous.
REFERENCES
Brooks D 2003 - Momotidae Grzimek´s Animal Life Encyclopedia Vol 10: Birds 3 - Thompson Gale.
Campbell B & Lack E 1985 - A Dictionary of Birds - T & AD Poyser.
