This is not the first post I have done on a Mot Mot but these are some of the best pictures I have taken of one. There were two preforming for me at breakfast up where I was staying in Costa Rica.
Adult males are up to 16 inches in size but the beautiful coloring is the same for both sexes so I am not sure which was male and which was female. Mot Mots are very distinctive not only because of their beautiful coloring but because of the trademark ploof or 'racket' at the end of their 2 tail feathers. These are apparently formed because the barbs are weakly attached and fall off due to abrasion with substrates or during routine preening.
The ploofs show up much better in this photo where it had jumped down to forage on the ground. They apparently nest in hollow tunnels in the sides of a bank. I can't think that would be the safest place to be but obviously they survive.
They sometimes loose one or both of the rackets off the end of the tale. This one had lost both.
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