Tody Motmot, EcoFinca Luna del Puente Reserva Natural, Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Honduras

EcoFinca del Puente is a small lodge with camping in foothills of the Blue Mountains of Honduras between Santa Cruz de Yojoa and Panacam Lodge. Last time we went there, on a trip a few years ago with Alex Alvarado of Hondura Birds, it was because they had a Great Pootoo with a chick in their garden. This time there was no Pootoo, so we went back on one the trails to look for the Tody Motmot. The Tody Motmot is the smallest Motmot in Honduras, and the one without the fancy bobbed tail. It is also one of the hardest to see. It sticks, in my experience, to deep thickets along stream beds where it is 1) very dark under triple canopy, and 2) very hard to see thorough the thick vegetation. Several times we stood with it calling right in front of us, and neither Alex or I could find it. Actually I spotted it first, but before I could get a pic, it dove deeper into the thicket. This is the best I could do…pushing the camera to the max at ISO 6400. Repeated attempts to find a bird in better light and better view produced no results, even though we got much more intimate with the thickets of EcoFinca del Puente than I ever expected or hoped to. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/80th @ f4 @ ISO 6400. Processed in Polarr. (By the way, the Tody Motmot is the Motmot that most resembles the true Todys, a closely related group of birds of the Caribbean Islands.)