Coraciiformes TAG: Motmots
Of the ten species of motmots, all of which are only found in the New World, only two have been kept in AZA collections with any regularity. The Turquoise-browed Motmot has been housed in very small numbers historically and not bred with any frequency. The Blue-crowned Motmot has been managed as a PMP (Population Management Plan) from 1998 until 2010 when it was elevated to a SSP (Species Survival Plan). Individuals and sometimes pairs of other species have been housed in collections but never in high enough numbers to have been viable. Some recent taxonomic work has proposed increasing the species count in Momotidae to a total of fourteen by dividing the Blue-crowned Motmot into five unique species. While there is support for many of the new species proposed by this research, the source that the Coraciiformes Taxon Advisory Group currently uses continues to list only ten species.
