Potoos | Nyctibiidae

Reuzennachtzwaluwen | Nictibios

Nocturnal birds of tropical America, represented in this guide by three species of a single genus, from the lowlands of Mexico to Panama, 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 and brown, 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 species 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.