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Whooping Motmot | Momotus subrufescens
Caribische motmot | Momoto rojizo
The Whooping Motmot is the Momotus species of central and eastern Panama, extending further across northern South America. It was long included in Momotus momota; since the recent split of that species it is the eastern counterpart of Lesson's Motmot in the guide area. It is best known from the forests along the Panama Canal.
Voice
A hollow, rising hoo-oop or whoop, often single or in a short, quavering series, and thus unlike the low double hoo-doot of Lesson's Motmot. Heard mainly at dusk and before sunrise.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
37–41 cm, more than half of it tail. The crown is black, surrounded by a blue ring, turquoise above the forehead and violet-blue on the hindcrown. A black mask runs through the red eye. The back, wings and tail are green to blue-green. The underparts are warm rufous to cinnamon, slightly greener on the breast, with a small black, blue-edged breast spot. The central tail feathers end in a blue, black-tipped racket on a short bare stretch of shaft. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Lesson's Motmot Momotus lessonii (western and central Panama to west of the canal) has the same head pattern but usually a broader blue ring and greener underparts; where the two come close, voice is the most useful feature. Rufous Motmot Baryphthengus martii is larger, with an entirely rufous head and breast without a black crown or blue ring, and a deeper, booming call. Broad-billed Motmot Electron platyrhynchum is smaller, with a rufous head and breast and a broad, flat bill.
Habitat
Humid lowland and foothill forest, also semi-deciduous forest on the Pacific side, gallery forest, secondary forest and forest edges, and parks and gardens with tall trees; from sea level to about 1200 m. It sits still for long periods in the lower and middle layers, swinging its tail. It eats large insects, spiders, small lizards and fruit. It nests in a self-dug tunnel in a bank or road cut.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in Panama: from the Canal Zone (Colón and Panamá) east through Panamá, Guna Yala and Darién to the Colombian border. West of the canal it is replaced by Lesson's Motmot. Outside the guide area in northern Colombia and north-western Venezuela, and in western Ecuador and extreme north-western Peru.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common along Pipeline Road (Camino del Oleoducto) and at Gamboa in Soberanía, and in the Parque Natural Metropolitano in Panama City. The call is often heard from the roadside forest early in the morning.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in most of its range and also present in secondary forest and parks.
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. Momotus comes from 'momot', a corruption (Nieremberg, 1635) of an onomatopoeic Nahuatl (Aztec) word for a blue-capped tropical bird. subrufescens is Latin, from sub 'somewhat' and rufescens 'reddish', after the rufous-tinged underparts. The specimen the first description was based on came from Colombia.