This brightly colored bird, a motmot, or pájaro reloj in Spanish and Toh in Maya, has distinct, long tail barbs with disc shaped feathers at the end which swing back and forth like the pendulum of a clock.

Maya legend says that the motmot’s tail didn’t always look strange though…

The legend says that after the creation of the animals, God remembered that he had not given them names. He announced that there would be a party where he would announce everybody’s names and there would be a race!Among the animals there was a beautiful little bird. It’s multicolored plumage and long tail made him the talk of the animal kingdom. Although this bird was very beautiful, he was also very lazy and just loved to sleep.

The race would start at dawn, which the bird thought was too early. Lazy, but not stupid, the bird decided he would sleep in the path mid-way through the race route. That way he’d wake up when heard the noise of all the other animals and be able to start the race halfway through and no one would know.

At dawn the race started and every animal participated. They ran, flew, slithered and crawled along the path to the finish line, however, our little bird was nowhere to be seen. The little bird did not hear them pass. When he finally woke up, he found no one else on the road so he started to fly, rushing to the finish line to get his name. “I must be in the lead!” he thought.

Something felt strange, though. When the bird beat his wings he flew a little faster than usual, felt a little lighter than usual. He was scared and when he looked behind him he noticed that where his beautiful tail had once been, there was nothing left but two thin feathers with tufts at the end.

As he looked at the sun and saw that he was in the middle of the sky, he began to understand why there were no animals on the road; they had already passed him while he was sleeping and had trampled all over his beautiful tail.

The little bird was crying when he reached the finish line. God said as punishment for being lazy and for sleeping too much, each morning he will wake up the rest of the animal kingdom as the sun rises, and his tail will act like the hands of a clock so that he’s never late again. You can find this sacred bird across the Yucatan Peninsula. They usually live near cenotes or places where there is water; hiding in caves, crevices and wells. 

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