Blue-crowned Motmot Momotus coeruliceps

The Blue-crowned Motmot is the most northern member of the "Blue-crowned Motmot" complex; indeed, its distribution is one the most northern of all the motmots, rivaled only by the Russet-crowned Motmot (Momotus mexicanus) of western Mexico. The Blue-crowned Motmot takes its name from one of the four subspecies, coeruleiceps of northeastern Mexico, in which the center of the crown is blue; in the three other subspecies, the center of the crown is black, circled by a ring of bright blue along the sides of the crown. The Blue-crowned Motmot is a widespread, fairly common that occurs from northeastern Mexico south to western Panama. Like other species of motmots, birds often perch on a favored branch, where they cock their long tail back and forth like a clock pendulum and occasionally sally after a flying insect. The Blue-crowned Motmot is similar in many respects to several other allopatric species of motmots in the "Blue-crowned Motmot" complex, all of which formerly were classified as a single, highly variable species.