Common Potoo

The Common Potoo is a large nocturnal bird related to nightjars and frogmouths, famous for its uncanny ability to disappear in plain sight. By day it perches upright on a broken branch stub or fence post, stretching its head skyward and closing its huge eyes to slits, so that its mottled gray-brown, bark-like plumage renders it almost invisible.

At roughly the size of a small hawk, the potoo has an enormous head, a tiny hooked bill that conceals a cavernous gape, and long wings and tail that fold neatly against the body when perched. Its eyes, adapted for night vision, often catch a torch beam and glow a distinctive orange-red.

Despite its unassuming daytime disguise, the Common Potoo becomes an active aerial hunter after dark, sallying out from favored perches to snatch large flying insects in its wide mouth before returning to the same spot, much like a giant flycatcher of the night.

Key field marks

• Large, stocky, upright silhouette with a big rounded head and short neck
• Mottled gray, brown, and black plumage that mimics broken bark or a snapped branch
• Tiny bill but an extremely wide gape lined with bristles
• Huge yellow to orange eyes that reflect brightly in torchlight
• Long tail and wings that project past the perch, held tight to the body

Similar species

Other potoo species (Great Potoo, Long-tailed Potoo) overlap in range but the Common Potoo is smaller and slimmer than the Great Potoo, and shorter-tailed than the Long-tailed Potoo. Nightjars are smaller, more compact, and typically seen flying low over open ground rather than perched upright on exposed snags. By day, a motionless potoo is most often mistaken for a dead branch stub rather than confused with another bird.

Habitat

Common Potoos favor open and semi-open habitats with scattered trees: forest edges, savanna, plantations, riverine woodland, and even large gardens or parks with tall trees, rather than dense unbroken rainforest.

Range

The species is widespread from southern Mexico and Central America through most of South America east of the Andes, south to northern Argentina, and it also occurs on Trinidad and Tobago.

Migration

Most populations are resident year-round, though local movements in response to food availability are suspected in some areas.

Behavior

Common Potoos are strictly nocturnal and famously motionless by day, relying entirely on camouflage rather than flight to avoid detection. At dusk they become active, launching short sallying flights from a fixed perch to seize insects in mid-air before returning to the same or a nearby perch.

Voice

The voice is an eerie, mournful, descending series of wailing notes often rendered as 'poor-me-one' or 'poooor... me... all...', given mainly around dusk and through the night; this haunting call has inspired folklore across its range.

Feeding

It feeds almost exclusively on large nocturnal flying insects such as beetles, moths, and winged termites, taken in flight from an open perch.

Nesting and breeding

The Common Potoo builds no nest at all. The single egg is laid directly in a shallow depression atop a broken branch stub, and the incubating adult's cryptic plumage keeps it hidden in plain view throughout incubation and chick-rearing.