Oilbird | Steatornithidae

Vetvogels | Guácharos

The 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.