Motmots and Todies
A colorful bird sitting on a branch in South American forest, swinging from
Side-to-side a long tail, shaped at the end like the flights of a pair of darts, is almost certainly a marmot— a close relative of the kingfishers. Marmots are medium-sized insectivorous birds that are usually found impairs, well separated from their neighbors.
All species are bright green or turquoise green on the back and tail, several are also green beneath; others have brown under-
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Parts. Some have brown heads, but the crowns of most species are turquoise, bluer black. All have black marks through or near the eye and in many this mark is highlighted by thin turquoise stripes above and below. Several have a black spot on the breast.
The most distinctive feature of most mot-most is their long, highly graduated tail. In all species except the Blue-throated and Todymotmots the vanes of the two longest (central) tail feathers are missing for 3cm (I in) or more a short way from the tip. Leaving the bird with “racket” tips to the feathers. Some reports describe the birds as strippingthe barbs off the feathers themselves, but it seems as if the barbs are anyway weakly attached to the quill at this point and that they work loose shortly after the feather is fully grown ; doubtless they are more likely to break loose while the bird is preening, which probably explains the different accounts. It is not known why the feathers should he like this except that they are extensively used in display.
Marmots have longish, powerful bills which are slightly down curved and which have sharp serrations along the edges: the bill of the Keel-billed marmot is strongly keeled? The birds feed on large insects and lizards and use their powerful bills for crush-in their prey; they also sometimes feed on berries. They sit around on perches beneath the forest canopy and sally forth, flycatcher-like, to catch flying insects or to pounce on small animals on the ground.
All motmots nest in holes, usually in aback or sometimes in a burrow dug in the ground; they dig the burrows themselves. At the end of the burrow they excavate largish chamber in which the female lays the eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the young. The young do not leave thinnest until they are fully able to fly, but their elongated tail feathers have not developed at this time. Civic•
Toddies are close relatives of the marmots of Central and South America: both groups have many characteristics in common, butteries arc considerably smaller.
Toddies are confined to the larger islands of the Caribbean, where each species has limited distribution. The Cuban toddy lives on Cuba and the Isle of Pines, the Puerto Recanted on Puerto Rico, the Jamaican toddy on Jamaica; Hispaniola has two species, the Narrow-billed toddy at low altitudes and the Broad-billed toddy in the mountains. The Narrow-billed toddy is also found on Gonave, off Hispaniola.
All are a brilliant, iridescent green above, with a bright red throat. The color of their
Under parts varies from species to species; they may he pale - whitish or grayish - and some have a pink or yellow wash on their flanks. Unlike the marmots, toddies have short tails. All have long, straight bills which vary somewhat in width; they are usually black above and red or orange-red below. In flight, both sexes may make whirring noise. This is apparently made byte wings and may be associated with court-ship display.
The toddies are also like miniature versions of their mainland marmot cousins in their ecology. They live in wooded country, use-ally in forests and frequently along the edges of streams or rivers. They spend much of the day, either alone or in pairs, sitting still, perched on small twigs from which they sally out to catch small passing insects; occasionally they may pounce on tiny lizards or other small animals. And they also hover briefly to pluck prey from leaves. They are extremely tame and approachable.
During the breeding season they use their beaks to excavate tiny burrows in a hank of a stream or road. They lay their eggs in chamber at the end. Both parents incubate and care for the young. When the young hatch they are naked, and remain in thinnest until they can fly.