Broad-billed Motmot - BirdForum Opus

Photo by steveblain
Milpe Reserve, Ecuador, August 2004

Electron platyrhynchum

Identification

31–39 cm (12¼-15¼ in)
Rufous head and chest with black mask that tapers to a point in the rear. Turquoise belly and crissum. Back is green, with blue wing edges and lower tail.
The tail is long, with a racket tip (created by the bird by plucking) on the west slope of the Andes; no racket on east side. Narrow black tip.
Central black chest spot.
As indicated by the popular English name, the bill is broad, black, and curved downward.

Similar Species

Subspecies minus
Photo by Stanley Jones
Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panamá Province, Panama, December 2017

Would be unmistakable, except for confusion with the similar Rufous Motmot. The latter is considerably larger, has a broader mask, narrower bill, and most diagnostic, rufous plumage that extends to the lower belly.

Distribution

Northern half of South America north through Central America to Honduras.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Six subspecies are recognized^[1]:

E. p. minus:

Eastern Honduras to northern Colombia (lower Cauca Valley)

E. p. platyrhynchum:

Western Colombia and western Ecuador

E. p. colombianum : Northern Colombia (humid lowlands north of the Andes)

Plain-tailed

E. p. pyrrholaemum:

Eastern Colombia to eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and northern Bolivia

E. p. orienticola:

Western Brazil (Río Purús region)

E. p. chlorophrys:

Brazil (Mato Grosso, Pará and Goiás)

Habitat

Lower and middle levels in humid forest and forest borders. Observed at heights up to 1000 m.

Behaviour

Sallies from a perch, to capture large insects from surfaces (not in mid-air, flycatcher style). Perches patiently, often in an exposed situation. Individual or in pairs.

Diet

Their main diet consists of insects and their larvae, with the addition of spiders, centipedes, scorpions, small frogs, lizards and snakes.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Jan 2018)
BF Member observations

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Broad-billed Motmot. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 20 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Broad-billed_Motmot

External Links

Search for photos of Broad-billed Motmot in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1