Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various tropical American birds of the family Momotidae, usually having green and blue plumage with long tail feathers that have paddle- or racket-shaped tips.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bird of the family Momotidæ or Prionitidæ; a sawbill.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of long-tailed, passerine birds of the genus Momotus, having a strong serrated beak. In most of the species the two long middle tail feathers are racket-shaped at the tip, when mature. The bird itself is said by some writers to trim them into this shape. They feed on insects, reptiles, and fruit, and are found from Mexico to Brazil. The name is derived from its note.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any bird in the taxonomic family Momotidae, endemic to the neotropics.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun tropical American bird resembling a blue jay and having greenish and bluish plumage

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin motmot, probably of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Onomatopoeic, from American Spanish.

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Examples

  • More on the motmot can be found here HT John at Prairie Ice.

    Wondrous Feathers 2007

  • Reader, falconer, and birder Stacia Novy, in the military in Honduras, sent a photo of herself with the central tail feathers of a motmot that she picked up.

    Wondrous Feathers 2007

  • Every year 70,000 tourists walk among the dripping forests, where relative humidity routinely reaches 100 percent, and marvel at the wealth of wildlife, from the ruby red-eyed tree frog to the sonorous blue-crowned motmot.

    The Forest In The Clouds 2007

  • My favorites were the toco toucan, motmot, currasows, Yucatan jay, cinnamon-colored cuckoo, and pileated woodpecker and violaceous trogon (a relative of the resplendent quetzal).

    Studying Nature in Mexico is an Unforgettable Adventure 2007

  • The male motmot performs a pendulum-like display, swinging the racket-shaped tail feathers from side to side, and calling a low, resonant 'woop-woop-woop' in perfect time to the swings.

    Wondrous Feathers 2007

  • Guardabarranco, or Turquoise browed motmot, is the name of the official bird of Nicaragua.

    Planet Ubuntu 2009

  • Guardabarranco, or Turquoise browed motmot, is the name of the official bird of Nicaragua.

    Planet Ubuntu 2009

  • Guardabarranco, or Turquoise browed motmot, is the name of the official bird of Nicaragua.

    Planet Ubuntu 2009

  • This time, though, we decided that instead of hiking down from the parking lot we would hike up and try our luck at finding everyone's third motmot species of the trip, the more retiring Before reaching the park proper, however, we stopped along the entrance road to see what birds we might find in the area around the small lake created by a huge earthen dam.

    10,000 Birds 2009

  • Keel-billed Motmot is inherently cool just by being a motmot, it is not in any way more cool than other motmots, so it is no great disaster that there is no picture to share (or so I rationalize anyway).

    10,000 Birds 2009

Comments

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  • Any of several Central and South American birds comprising the family Momotidae (allied to the kingfishers), the members of which have colourful plumage with two long racket-shaped tail feathers and are mainly insectivorous.

    February 15, 2007

  • Why thanks, c_b. I knew you'd come up with a great definition for motmot. :-)

    February 15, 2007

  • a tip of the tails

    April 1, 2012