The ‘Mot Mot’

Well, I should really say Motmot – the Lesson’s Motmot, to be precise. A different kind of bird to my usual ones. But this tropical species is no less special than the rest.

I was lucky enough to see a Lesson’s Motmot in 2018 when I went to Costa Rica. It wasn’t long after we arrived in Monteverde (after a pretty long coach trip from San Jose) that we visited a butterfly garden and saw this bird on a power line minding its own business.

Like a typical rainforest bird, the Lesson’s Motmot is extremely colourful and has some very interesting tail feathers. I have to confess that I think I was suffering from some jet lag when I saw this beautiful bird in the flesh and all I can remember of that day was sitting on the coach, looking out of the window and seeing lots of sheer drops as we drove up and over mountains! I think a reflection of my tiredness is that I was entirely content knowing that the coach could plummet down off the road at any moment…!

I thought about the motmot recently and decided I wanted draw or paint it. So, in order to do this bird justice, I decided to get my watercolours out again. The first attempt ended up in the bin but I persisted with the second attempt. And, while working on the piece, I really started to appreciate the variety of colours in the Motmots plumage and it’s very mischievous eyes. 

Interestingly, there isn’t a huge amount of information about this bird online. Apparently the name ‘motmot’ comes from its ‘double hooting’ call, which sounds like an owl, its range extends from southern Mexico all the way down to Panama and another name for the Lesson’s Motmot is the ‘Blue-diademed Motmot’. It’s also thought to be pretty abundant but its numbers are also suspected to be declining and it isn’t clear whether a comprehensive count has ever been done!

I certainly hope I’ll see this bird again in the future. I was lucky enough to see so many tropical birds in Costa Rica but this was the first major spot of the trip so it’ll always be special to me 😊

A final word…

I do hope that you like ‘The Mot Mot’! Before I finish this post, I also wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted in my poll a couple of weeks ago! After some very helpful feedback from my blog readers and followers, I have now submitted 5 pieces of artwork to a design competition. You can see these designs on my competition profile page here.

Each piece of artwork submitted has a story behind it. I shared these stories recently in a blog post called “They all have a story to tell!” If you really like any of these pieces then, for a limited time during the competition, you can buy prints of the artwork or even cushions of your favourite designs!

Or, if you’d like to support in another way, competition points are also received for likes and shares of my competition page on Facebook. Voting ends on Monday 10th August.

Thank you very much to all of my readers and anyone else who is able to support me in this competition – it is very much appreciated!!! 🤗