The whooping motmot's back and wings are olive-green and the underparts dull brown. It has a long, green to blue, tail that that has extended feathers with racquet tips that are blue tipped with black. Its crown is black surrounded by a blue band, and it has a black eyemask bordered with turquoise. Twenty-seven specimens of the nominate whooping motmot weighed 75 to 124 g (2.6 to 4.4 oz).
The whooping motmot has two disjunct populations. The nominate subspecies is found from eastern Panama to northern and western Colombia. M. s. spatha is only on the Guajira Peninsula of northern Colombia. M. s. osgoodi is found from eastern Colombia into northwestern Venezuela. M. s. agenticinctus is separate; it is found in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. The whooping motmot inhabits several forest types including lowland evergreen and deciduos primary forests, forest edges, and secondary forest.
Not much is known about the whooping motmot's diet. It probably mostly eats large arthropods but is also reported to eat berries and lizards.
Like most Coraciiformes, the whooping motmot nests in long tunnels in earth banks.