MOTMOT is the name for about six genera and eight species of beautiful tropical American birds, inhabiting deep woods or dense thickets, and constituting the family Momotidae (order Coraciiformes), nearest related to todies, kingfishers and rollers. They appear like small jays, chiefly green with rufous, blue and black markings, but the excessively graduated tail or round-ended feathers in most species is long and peculiarly shaped; the middle pair is much longer than the rest, and bare shafts for 1 inch or more, so that the tips are racquet-shaped. These feathers are complete in the young, but brittle in the stem region, where the web breaks off easily as the bird preens with its jay-like but serrated bill. Motmots are solitary, fly in small undulations or perch on branches of trees, occasionally twitching the long tail from side to side when excited. They feed chiefly on insects caught in flight, and on small reptiles and fruits, becoming omnivorous in captivity. Like the kingfishers and todies, they excavate holes in banks of streams, in some species seeking caves or rock crevices, and lay three or four glossy white eggs. The turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa/14 inches) of southern Mexico to Costa Rica, is green above and on breast, throat black, cinnamon-rufous sides and belly.
