Potoos | Nyctibiidae

Reuzennachtzwaluwen | Nictibios | Potoos

Nocturnal birds of tropical America, represented in this guide by seven species in two genera, from the Amazonian lowlands at the foot of the Andes and the humid Chocó to the cloud forest on the Andean slopes, in forest, forest edge, open country with scattered trees and mangroves. They are related to the nightjars, with a large head, a tiny bill and an enormously wide gape, with which they catch large flying insects such as beetles and moths in short sallies from a fixed perch. The plumage is grey, brown or rufous, finely mottled and barred like tree bark. By day they sit upright and completely still at the end of a broken branch, head pointed upward and tail pressed against the wood, so that they look like a stump of the branch itself. Even with the eyes closed they can detect movement through small notches in the eyelids; at night the large eyes shine brightly in a torch beam. The voice is striking: in the Common Potoo a series of melancholy descending whistles, in others a harsh growl or hoarse croak. No nest is built: the single spotted egg rests in a depression or knot on top of a branch, and parent and chick hold the same branch-like posture.