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  Profile

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  In flight

Kingfishers

Blue-crowned Motmot

Momotus momota

• rare
• 37 km/h
• Least Concern

Wags its racquet-tipped tail like a pendulum while perched, then explodes into a sally.

Population

Not numerically quantified by IUCN/BirdLife; assessment (2016, reaffirmed 2025) states population size "has not been quantified, but is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable"; trend is decreasing

Habitat

Interior and edges of subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest; also secondary woodland, wooded ravines, pastureland, plantations, rural gardens and degraded former forest, from lowlands up to roughly 1,000–1,200 m elevation (1,200 m in Venezuela, 1,000 m in Ecuador, 750 m in Peru)

Fun fact

Its long tail's distinctive racquet-tipped shape forms naturally when weakly attached feather barbs near the tip abrade and fall away during normal wear and preening, not from the bird deliberately trimming its own feathers as was once believed.

Range

South America east of the Andes: eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina (IUCN EOO ≈ 11,300,000 km²)

Diet

Primarily insectivorous — beetles (including dung beetles), cicadas, stick insects and other arthropods, plus spiders, larvae, small lizards, occasionally small mammals, and fruit; sometimes follows army-ant swarms to catch prey flushed by the ants

Size

0.41 m