Blue Cowned Motmot

Many years ago whilst stationed in Belize with the Royal Marines I had the honour of being asked by London Zoo to lead an expedition to capture some Blue Crowned Motmots.
This distinctive and beautiful bird was close to extinction and therefore desperately wanted by the zoo, so they could start a breeding programme to save the species for future generations to enjoy.
We headed up the Monkey river and into the Maya mountains with only minimal loss of life.
( Two native barers believed to have been eaten by Jaguars ) After many days trudging through deep dank humid jungle, the ornithology expert located a nesting site and I observed these fine cretures for the first time. Traps were set and we quickly caught 6 specimins to send back to London. The journey back was not without incident ! A shoot out with communist rebels resulted in the further loss of two more barers and the camp cook.
Back in the capital the birds were sent on to London. I celebrated in style with my expedition colleagues as we congratulated ourselves on our success. I confess I got very, very intoxicated. and ended up spending the night in jail after a brawl with some Portugeses sailors got out of hand. High jinx and raw emotion got the better of me ( not for the first time ! )
The Blue Crowned Motmots apparently took well to life in captivity and are now breeding well and there are plans to reintroduce some young birds back into the wild.