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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol 124. No. 4. December 2012 
Motmot by differences in the pitch and or speed o 
the repeated single calls. 
DISCUSSION 
Motmots have short rounded wings and do noi 
make long distance migrations. The Tody Motmot 
has not been recorded performing movements 
or migrations of any kind (Snow 2001). Mv 
recordings were ohtained ~65 km from the 
nearest known location for the Tody Motmot. 
the Pacific Slope of Tenoria Volcano. It j. s 
unlikely the individuals present were vagrants 
trom the Guanacaste population, which is on the 
opposite slope of Costa Rica's continuous moun¬ 
tainous spine. It is more likely these individuals 
represent a previously undiscovered population of 
Tody Motmots. Foothill forests at elevations 
between 400 and 900 m drained by the Jamaica! 
San Lorencito. and San Lorenzo rivers are private- 
l , argely i,,accessible lo ornithologists 
and birdwatchers. Large tracts of unexplored 
P unary forest could support a previously undis¬ 
covered population of Tody Motmots. Foothill 
forests on the Caribbean Slope of the Til arm 
Childrens fr ‘ he M,, " evcrfc •*»»» Elena, 
h" , - Internaljonul Ruinfo resl . and Alberto 
of hiahh T n r S RCSerVe C ° rapk ' x (40 -™ ha 
Of highland forestj are currently unprotected. 
Disturbances or land use changes in this area 
would jeopardize a population of Tody Motmots. 
Pristine foothill forests are rare in the Neotropics 
(Stot/ et al. 1996), and further study is needed to 
assess the conservation value of foothill forests on 
the C aribbean Slope of the Tilaran Mountains and 
populations of Tody Motmots within these forests. 
AC KNO W LEDG MENTS 
I iliank E. S. Hatchett. D. K. Stevens, and H. C. King for 
(heir excellent assistance in the field. I also thank Gustavo 
Orozco and Katherine for their gracious hospitality at (he 
research Mahon. The members of xeno-canto.org. especially 
• . I anc. Patrick O'Donnel. Scott Olmstend. and Jay 
VanderGaust assisted in identification of Tody Motmot 
votalizaiions. This manuscript was improved by sugees- 
hons from D. A. Williams, M. A- Patten. C E. Braun, and 
an anonymous reviewer. Funding for this research was 
provided by the ECU Institute for Environmental Studies 
and fCL Graduate Studies. 
literature cited 
flu IV, S. L. AND W. L. Brown. 19X6. A guide to the birds 
ol Columbia. Princeton University Press. Princeton. 
New Jersey, USA. 
Hoi.drjdge, L. R, 1967. Life zone ecology. Tropical 
Science Center, San Jose, Costa Rica. 
H<)Wr ';l~ S N - G AN & S. Wkbb. 1995. A guide to the birds 
ol Mexico and nonhem Central America. Oxford 
University Press. Oxford. United Kingdom. 
