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| One morning in September of 2004, while driving down Semaphore Hill below the Canopy Tower, we happened upon an army ant swarm. Ant swarms are welcome sights to birders, as a number of interesting birds trail in their wake, feasting on the insects that are flushed from hiding in the face of the oncoming ant hoarde. The Broad-billed Motmots (there were at least 3 individuals) pictured here were among the ant swarm attendees on this occasion. I won't go into too much detail here- my <"A HREF="/photos/pan04birdsintro.html" TARGET="_top">2004 Panama Birds Photo Journal offers the full story- but suffice to say that the birds were remarkably accomodating, and the footage I obtained that day was perhaps the best I've captured of any bird. The stills presented here show every detail of the lovely plunage of this splendid bird. |
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| The most noteworthy aspect of any motmot's anatomy is the interesting, badminton racquet-shaped tail feathers. As I understand it, the barbs on the central portion of the tail feathers are weak, and fall off as a bird matures either via preening or abrasion. I have not heard any speculation that this confers any sort of evolutionary advantage, so perhaps it is just one of those delightful quirks of nature. Birds are often found with their tail feathers fully intact (perhaps immatures or molting birds), and with only one racquet (perhaps due to some sort of trauma). The images below detail a couple of the tail feather variations. |
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| Copyright© Ken Allaire. All rights reserved. Reproduction, modification, or republication of the images or content contained herein without authorization for any purpose or to produce any product is a violation of the copyright herein and is strictly prohibited. |