Great Potoo

The Great Potoo is the largest member of the potoo family (Nyctibiidae), a group of nocturnal, insectivorous birds related to nightjars. Its mottled gray, brown, and white plumage provides extraordinary camouflage, mimicking the bark and texture of a broken tree snag. By day it perches bolt upright on an exposed branch, bill pointed skyward, eyes narrowed to slits, remaining motionless and easily overlooked despite its considerable size. At night its enormous yellow eyes and wide gaping mouth become apparent as it hunts on the wing.

Key field marks

• Large size, stocky build, mottled bark-like gray-brown-and-white plumage.
• Huge eyes (yellow, reflecting strongly in torchlight at night) and a very wide gape.
• Upright, stump-like daytime roosting posture on a bare branch.

Similar species

Common Potoo and other smaller potoos share the camouflage strategy but are noticeably smaller and paler-voiced. The Great Potoo's much larger size and deeper, growling call distinguish it from relatives.

Great Potoos inhabit the edges of humid lowland forest, gallery forest, and clearings with scattered tall trees, generally below about 1,200 m. The species ranges from southern Mexico through Central America and across the Amazon basin to Bolivia and Brazil. It is a non-migratory, strictly nocturnal resident, roosting by day on an exposed perch and becoming active only after dark.

Voice

A deep, guttural, growling roar, quite unlike typical bird calls, given at night and sometimes described as sounding almost mammalian; the sound can carry impressively through the forest.

Feeding

Great Potoos are aerial insectivores, sallying from a high perch at night to catch large flying insects such as beetles and moths in their enormous gape, and occasionally taking small vertebrates such as bats.

Nesting and breeding

Unlike most birds, potoos build no nest at all: a single egg is laid directly in a shallow depression or crevice atop a broken branch or stub, where the incubating adult's camouflaged plumage renders it nearly invisible. Both parents are thought to share incubation duties.