Lesson’s Motmots are colorful birds that live in the humid neotropical forests of Costa Rica. The name ‘motmot’ comes from its double-hooting call, which we often heard in the morning from the deck at the Rancho. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in several species of Motmot, like this one, some of the barbs on the two longest tail feathers are fragile and fall off during preening or by other abrasive means. That results in a short length of the feather shaft being left bare. As a result, the remaining feather barbs create the distinctive racket shape at the end of the two longest tail feathers. The Motmots often visited the areas around the deck, and when they did, they usually stayed long enough for us to take a few portraits.
Wow, that is beautiful!