Oilbirds | Steatornithiformes

Vetzwaluwachtigen | Guácharos

An order with a single family and a single species, the Oilbird, which in the region occurs only in eastern Panama, around caves and deep gorges in forested country. It is the only bird in the world that feeds on fruit at night. It is rufous brown with small white spots, with long narrow wings, a fan-shaped tail and a strong hooked bill surrounded by long bristles. By day it roosts in colonies on ledges deep inside caves, where it finds its way in the dark with audible clicks, a simple form of echolocation, against a deafening background of screams and snarls. At night it flies out, sometimes tens of kilometres, to fruiting palms and trees of the laurel family, plucking fruit on the wing and partly locating it by smell. The nest is a mound of regurgitated fruit pulp on a rock ledge, holding two to four white eggs. The young are fed until they are heavier than their parents, and oil was once rendered from them, which gave the bird its name.

Families in this order

Oilbird | Steatornithidae1 speciesThe family consists of a single species, the Oilbird, which appears in the guide only in the south of the region and is rarely seen there; its stronghold lies in northern South America. It is the only bird that forages for fruit at night. By day it rests in colonies in dark caves and gorges, where it finds its way by echolocation: it gives rapid clicks that people can hear and listens to the echo, an ability known otherwise only in some swiftlets. The bird is large and rufous brown with white spots, with long wings, a long tail, short weak legs and a powerful, strongly hooked bill surrounded by long bristles. At night it flies great distances to fruiting palms and laurel trees, plucks the fruit in flight and later regurgitates the seeds, scattering them through forest far from its caves. The nest is a mound of regurgitated fruit pulp and droppings on a ledge, with two to four white eggs. The young grow so fat that they weigh more than their parents; they were once harvested for their oil, which the name recalls. Inside the cave the birds keep up a deafening screaming.