- Eumomota superciliosa
Identification
34 cm. Green body, rufous back and belly, bright blue stripe above the eye, blue-bordered black patch on the throat, blue flight feathers and upperside of the tail. The tips of the tail feathers are shaped like rackets.
Distribution
Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Taxonomy
Subspecies[1]
Seven subspecies are recognized:
- E. s. bipartite:
- E. s. superciliosa:
- Southeastern Mexico (Tabasco, Campeche, northern Yucatán and Cozumel Island)
- E. s. vanrossemi:
- Arid interior Guatemala (Río Negro and Motagua valleys)
- E. s. sylvestris:
- Caribbean lowlands of eastern Guatemala
- E. s. apiaster:
- El Salvador to western Honduras and northwestern Nicaragua
- E. s. euroaustris:
- Arid Caribbean slope of northern Honduras
- E. s. australis
- Pacific slope of northwestern Costa Rica
Habitat
Deciduous and evergreen forest areas, sparse bushy areas, and those with random trees in an otherwise open space, along with more cultivated regions at elevations up to 1400 meters/4500 feet.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet includes insects and small reptiles.
Breeding
It makes a long tunnel nest in an earth bank or sometimes in a quarry or fresh-water well and 3-6 white eggs are laid.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Snow, D. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tubmot1.01
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
