The turquoise-browed motmot (''Eumomota superciliosa'') also known as torogoz, is a colourful, medium-sized

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

of the motmot family, Momotidae. It inhabits

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

from south-east

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

(mostly the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

), to Costa Rica, where it is common and not considered threatened. It lives in fairly open

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s such as forest edge,

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

and scrubland. It is more conspicuous than other motmots, often perching in the open on wires and fences. From these perches it scans for prey, such as

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s and small reptiles. White

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

(3–6) are laid in a long tunnel

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

in an earth bank or sometimes in a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

or fresh-water well. Its name originates from the

turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

color of its brow. It is the national bird of both El Salvador and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

, where it is known as "Torogoz" and "Guardabarranco" respectively. ES 05 2012 Torogoz in Joya de Ceren 1465

The bird is long and weighs . It has a mostly grey-blue body with a rufous back and belly. There is a bright blue strip above the eye and a blue-bordered black patch on the throat. The

flight feathers Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

and upperside of the tail are blue. The tips of the tail feathers are shaped like rackets and the bare feather shafts are longer than in other motmots. Although it is often said that motmots pluck the barbs off their tail to create the racketed shape, this is not true; the barbs are weakly attached and fall off due to abrasion with substrates and with routine preening. Unlike most bird species, where only males express elaborate traits, the turquoise-browed motmot expresses the extraordinary racketed tail in both sexes. Research indicates that the tail has evolved to function differently for the sexes. Males apparently use their tail as a sexual signal, as males with longer tails have greater pairing success and reproductive success. In addition to this function, the tail is used by both sexes in a wag-display, whereby the tail is moved back-and-forth in a pendulous fashion. The wag-display is performed in a context unrelated to mating: both sexes perform the wag-display in the presence of a

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

, and the display is thought to confer naturally selected benefits by communicating to the predator that it has been seen and that pursuit will not result in capture. This form of interspecific communication is referred to as a pursuit-deterrent signal. The

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...

is nasal, croaking and far-carrying. The turquoise-browed motmot is a well-known bird in its range. It has acquired a number of local names including ''guardabarranco'' ("ravine-guard") in Nicaragua, Torogoz in El Salvador (based on its call) and ''pájaro reloj'' ("clock bird") in the Yucatán, based on its habit of wagging its tail like a

pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...

. In Costa Rica it is known as ''momoto cejiceleste'' or the far-less flattering ''pájaro bobo'' ("foolish bird"), owing to its tendency to allow humans to come very near it without flying away.

Gallery

motmot1.jpg Turquoise-browed Motmot (6900632444).jpg Momoto Ceja Azul, Turquoise Browed Motmot, Eumomota superciliosa (15588827554).jpg Eumomota superciliosa -El Salvador-8.jpg Turquoise-browed Motmot - Eumomota superciliosa.jpg, Turquoise-browed Motmot (7046728729).jpg, Guardabarranco - Nicaragua.jpg, Torogoz posado en bambues.jpg, El mero torogoz.jpg, Guardabarranco.JPG, Turquoise-browed Motmot.jpg, Turquoise-browed Motmot 2495425451.jpg, Eumomota superciliosa -Mexico-8.jpg, Turquois-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) (5771846357).jpg, Toh (Eumomota superciliosa) (3981926950).jpg, Toh (Eumomota superciliosa) (3981933926).jpg, Eumomota superciliosa.jpg, Turquoise-Browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) (5772394206).jpg, Turquoise-browed Motmot El Salvador.jpg

References

* * *

External links

Turquoise-browed Motmot research by Troy G. Murphy
at Trinity University, Texas
Stamps
(for El Salvador, Honduras,

, and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

) a
bird-stamps.org
* *

, Nicaragua] * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q922754 Momotidae, turquoise-browed motmot National symbols of El Salvador National symbols of Nicaragua Birds of Central America Birds of Mexico Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Birds of El Salvador Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica

turquoise-browed motmot The turquoise-browed motmot (''Eumomota superciliosa'') also known as torogoz, is a colourful, medium-sized bird of the motmot family, Momotidae. It inhabits Central America from south-east Mexico (mostly the Yucatán Peninsula), to Costa Rica, ...