What’s a blue mot mot? I wish I could say it’s a bird, but it’s not: it’s my *mishearing* of a bird’s name from a guide who was trying to tell me about these phenomenally gorgeous — and, according to the guide, also phenomenally stupid — birds. “Look!” he said. “They don’t even know to fly away from the tourists!”
This was in Costa Rica, and while I’ve always loved animals/nature documentaries, etc., my trip to Costa Rica in 2009 was when I started to realize that nature is fractal: the deeper you go, the more there is to learn. For me, the place where animals and humans meet each other and interact is particularly fascinating. Each of these interactions can generate a novel’s worth of tensions, contractions, betrayals, and thrilling discoveries, and yes, much is lost in translation on all sides; please join me as I explore what I can of that intriguing space.
Oh, and the blue mot mot? It was actually probably a Lesson’s Motmot in the blue-capped motmot family, and you can find out more about both on the Cornell University Lab Ornithology Neotropical Birds website: http://ow.ly/O21i30fdRgH.
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