{"id":291446,"date":"2026-05-13T00:18:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T23:44:31","slug":"blue-throated-motmot","status":"publish","type":"fauna","link":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/fauna\/blue-throated-motmot\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue-throated Motmot"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":346802,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[]},"collection":[],"country":[51],"fauna-group":[27577],"fauna-type":[27217],"star-rating":[262],"class_list":["post-291446","fauna","type-fauna","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","country-guatemala","fauna-group-motmots","fauna-type-birds","star-rating-262"],"acf":{"scientific_name":"Aspatha gularis","animal_description":"The Blue-throated Motmot (*Aspatha gularis*) is a striking, medium-sized bird endemic to the highland forests of Central America, most notably in Guatemala and southern Mexico. Its most unique characteristic is its vivid, iridescent blue throat patch, which sharply contrasts with its otherwise green body, chestnut belly, and black facial mask. Like all motmots, it possesses a long, racket-tipped tail that it often swings side to side like a pendulum, a behavior used to communicate or startle prey. A special feature is its serrated bill, perfectly adapted for snatching insects, small lizards, and fruits mid-flight. This elusive bird is often heard before it is seen, its distinct, low-pitched \"hoop\" call echoing through the cloud forest canopy.","animal_habitat":"The Blue-throated Motmot inhabits humid montane forests and cloud forests, typically at elevations between 1,200 and 2,400 meters. It favors dense, mossy understory vegetation along steep, forested slopes, often near streams or ravines. Its geographical range is restricted to the highlands of southern Mexico (Chiapas), Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras, with isolated populations also reported in northern Nicaragua. It does not occur in lowland habitats.","animal_behavior_and_reproduction":"The Blue-throated Motmot is typically monogamous, with pairs maintaining a stable territory year-round. Courtship involves mutual preening and the male offering food to the female, a behavior that strengthens the pair bond. They nest in deep burrows excavated into earthen banks or soil, which can be over a meter long, with a chamber at the end. Unlike many motmots, this species does not exhibit cooperative breeding; the pair alone incubates the clutch of 3\u20134 white eggs for about three weeks. Both parents share incubation duties and feed the chicks, which fledge after roughly a month. A unique reproductive strategy is the use of the same burrow for multiple seasons, with the pair often reusing and maintaining the tunnel. The chicks are born altricial and remain in the nest for an extended period, relying fully on parental care until they are capable of flight.","diet":"The Blue-throated Motmot is primarily a frugivore and insectivore, with its diet heavily centered on wild fruits, berries, and small invertebrates. It forages alone or in pairs, often sallying from a perch to snatch large insects like beetles, cicadas, and grasshoppers mid-air, or gleaning caterpillars and spiders from foliage. An interesting dietary fact is that it frequently consumes small lizards and frogs, which it beats against a branch to subdue before swallowing whole. Additionally, like many motmots, it will visit fruiting trees such as those in the genus *Cecropia* and *Miconia*, and it occasionally supplements its diet with nectar from flowers, particularly during dry seasons when insects are scarce.","colors":"The Blue-throated Motmot has a vibrant green body, a bright blue throat patch, a black facial mask, and a rufous belly. Its central tail feathers are elongated with bare shafts ending in racket-shaped tips, and it lacks the typical motmot racket-tail feather degradation, keeping them intact. No specific camouflage adaptations are noted beyond general green forest blending.","fun_facts":"Despite its name, the Blue-throated Motmot doesn\u2019t actually have a blue throat\u2014the color is a vivid turquoise, and its \u201cracketed\u201d tail feathers, which look like a pair of dangling racquets, are a unique adaptation for visual displays during courtship. These birds are known for the quirky behavior of \u201ctail-wagging,\u201d where they repeatedly swing their long tails side to side like a pendulum, possibly to startle prey or signal to rivals. They also have serrated edges on their bills, a rare trait among motmots, which helps them grip slippery insects and small lizards with precision.","conservation_status_&_efforts":"The Blue-throated Motmot is currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, though its population is believed to be decreasing. Primary threats include habitat loss from deforestation for agriculture and cattle ranching, particularly in its restricted range of highland cloud forests in southern Mexico and Central America. Specific conservation measures are limited but focus on habitat preservation within protected areas, such as El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and several reserves in Guatemala and Honduras. Ongoing efforts also involve monitoring populations to better understand the impact of forest fragmentation and climate change, which could shift its narrow elevational range.","endemic":false,"migratory":false,"nocturnal":false,"conservation_status":"Least Concern","ebird_link":{"title":"View on Ebird","url":"https:\/\/ebird.org\/species\/bltmot1","target":"_blank"},"animal_related_page":{"title":"View on Animalia","url":"https:\/\/animalia.bio\/blue-throated-motmot","target":"_blank"},"fauna_family":"Momotidae","fauna_known_nicknames":"Blue-throated Motmot","fauna_average_length":"30\u201334 cm \/ 12\u201313 in","fauna_average_weight":"60\u201370 g \/ 2.1\u20132.5 oz","fauna_wingspan":"N\/A","fauna_key_physical_feature":"Bright blue throat patch and long, racquet-tipped tail","fauna_primary_diet":"Primarily Insectivore and Carnivore (small vertebrates, fruits occasionally)","fauna_geographical_range":"Highlands of southern Mexico (Chiapas) to western Guatemala, El Salvador, and western Honduras","fauna_preferred_habitat":"Cloud forest and humid montane forest edges, often near streams","fauna_social_structure":"Solitary or in pairs","fauna_breeding_site":"Burrows excavated in earthen banks or road cuts","fauna_conservation_status":"Least Concern (LC)","fauna_population_trend":"Stable","fauna_spanish_name":"Momoto gorjiazul","fauna_french_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna\/291446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fauna"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=291446"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=291446"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-group?post=291446"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-type?post=291446"},{"taxonomy":"star-rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/star-rating?post=291446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}