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Whooping Motmot | Momotus subrufescens
Caribische motmot | Momoto rojizo | Udu-gritador
The Whooping Motmot is the Momotus motmot of the drier lowlands west of the Andes, from the Caribbean north of Colombia to north-western Peru. It sits motionless and upright on a branch, swinging its long, racquet-tipped tail like a pendulum. It was formerly part of Blue-crowned Motmot, which has been split into several species.
Voice
A hollow, slightly rising call, single or doubled, like hoo-oop or hoo-doo, mainly in the twilight before dawn, often answered by other birds.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
38–43 cm, including the long tail with black-tipped racquets. The crown is black, surrounded by a blue band, turquoise at the front and more violet-blue at the rear. A broad black mask is edged blue below. The upperparts are green. The underparts are cinnamon to olive-cinnamon, greener in the southern race, with one or two black spots on the breast. The iris is red. The sexes are alike; juveniles are duller, with a smaller crown pattern.
Confusion species
Amazonian Motmot Momotus momota is very similar but lives east of the Andes. Andean Motmot Momotus aequatorialis is larger and greener below and lives higher in the Andes. Rufous Motmot Baryphthengus martii and Broad-billed Motmot Electron platyrhynchum have an all-rufous head without a blue crown ring and live in more humid forest. Tody Motmot Hylomanes momotula is much smaller, with a short tail.
Habitat
Dry and semi-humid forest, gallery forest, old secondary forest, forest edges and shaded plantations, from the lowlands up to about 1500 m. It sits still for long periods and sallies for large insects, spiders, small lizards and other small animals on the ground and in foliage, and also eats fruit. It nests in a long tunnel in an earth bank, riverbank or ditch side.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Caribbean lowlands and foothills of the north, around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and in the Magdalena valley. In Ecuador in the western lowlands and foothills. In Peru in the north-west, in Tumbes and Piura. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama and north-western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In dry forest and shaded plantations, such as the dry forest of south-western Ecuador and north-western Peru and around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. In the early morning the calls give the birds away; later they often sit still in the shade at mid-height.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates man-made landscapes with trees, but the dry forest of the west coast is heavily cleared.
Scientific name
Momotus subrufescens | Sclater, 1853
Sclater described the species in 1853 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Momotus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. The genus name is a Latinisation of momot or motmot, a Mexican (Nahuatl) name for these birds. The species name subrufescens comes from Latin sub, 'somewhat', and rufescens, 'reddish', after the rufous plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Colombia.