copperbadge:

sarahlibrary:

npr:

thebeakerblog:

This master of disguise spends most of its day brazenly (and bravely) perched atop trees. Its camouflage mimics the bark patterns found in its native Central and South America, where it spends most of its nights issuing plaintive calls and swooping around looking for insects. But be warned. This bird is no owl. It’s the great potoo (Nyctibius grandis).

• This bird has a big head. Relative to its body, that is. Great potoo eyes are also large, with brown-to-yellow irises. That may lead you to think they members of the owl family (that’s what I thought!), but they’re actually more closely related to birds like nighthawks.
• The taxonomic order to which they belong (Caprimulgiformes), gets its name from the Latin for “goat milker,” which is an old (and incorrect) belief that these types of birds like to suckle goats. Yikes.
• Myths about this charismatic bird persist, however. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in remote parts of Brazil, great potoo feathers are believed to ensure chastity and are used in anti-seduction ceremonies.
• For food, the birds like to eat insects. But they’ve been known to consume bats as well. They hunt by perching, blending in with their surroundings and pouncing, when the time is right. 
• Great potoos are perhaps best known for their distinctive calls, which are often issued as drawn-out moaning growls on moonlit nights. One observer described the call as “a fairly loud, gruff BUAAaa, descending somewhat (at a distance like retching sound of human), given at well-spaced intervals.”

(Image Credit: Creative Commons, Bart vanDorp, fveronesi1 / Source: Wikimedia Commons, YouTube: Jonny Miller, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, BirdLife International)

Such a sneaky lil dude! -Ariel

@copperbadge  Have you seen this?

Potoos “treestumping” are one of my new favourite things but let’s not overlook the phrase “anti-seduction ceremonies” which just made me guffaw into my tea.