The Story
I photographed this Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) at Hostal Monte Verde, near Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. It lives in fairly open country, such as forest edge, gallery forest and scrub, from southeastern Mexico to Costa Rica. It lays its white eggs at the end of a long tunnel in an earth bank, sometimes in a quarry or a well, and in the breeding season it wags its tail before feeding its young. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/60 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Santa Rosa de Copán held its first bird festival in August 2022, organized by the local COAS Copán club, and I was glad to take part as a speaker.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Turquoise-browed Motmot (Eumomota superciliosa) belongs to the family Momotidae (Motmots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List