Great Potoo

Nyctibius grandis

Greatest bark impersonator alive. Motionless on a snag by day, then out at night to engulf insects in its vast gape.

Population: 500,000–4,999,999 mature individuals (2019 est.), decreasing (habitat loss ~7% over three generations; overall decline estimated <10% over that period)
Habitat: Humid to semi-humid tropical and subtropical lowland and foothill forests (ADW notes records from ~35 up to ~2,900 m, though most sources cite typical range up to ~1,500 m), including forest edge, moist savanna, second-growth woodland, and plantations/farmland; roosts high in the canopy (12+ m) by day.
Fun fact: By day the Great Potoo perches bolt upright on a broken snag with its eyes nearly closed, using cryptic bark-like plumage to disappear as a stub of dead wood while a sliver of vision through notches in its eyelids keeps watch for danger.
Range: Central and South America: from southern Mexico through Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama) south through Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil (extreme range extent ~13.2 million km² across 17 countries).
Diet: Nocturnal aerial hunter of large flying insects (beetles, katydids, crickets, grasshoppers, moths); occasionally takes small bats and birds, sallying from a low perch and returning to it.
Size: 0.53 m
Wingspan: 0.73 m
Lifespan: 12 years

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