5 Key Differences About This Strange Bird

If you’ve heard of the ghost chook or seen these movies of the bizarre, bark-like birds within the Amazon, you’ve seen potoos. The fascinating birds truly are available seven completely different species, all inside the Nyctobiidae household, and all native the Latin America. Let’s discover two of probably the most intriguing birds on the planet, the frequent potoo vs. the good potoo and see what makes every so outstanding.

What within the World is a Potoo?

Belonging to the Nyctobiidae household, potoos are distinctive birds coming in seven species total. The birds reside in Latin America, between Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The birds belong to the household with nighthawks, nightjars, and whippoorwills. In reality, most people consider them as trying a bit like a cross between nightjars and whippoorwills.

The birds have habits and a imprecise look just like owls, however they belong to a distinct household fully and aren’t associated to those different creatures of the night time. Potoos have earned the nickname of “ghost bird” due to their daytime habits of hiding in plain sight, mixing in with the bark of bushes and out of the blue opening their eyes when startled, trying a bit like a spirit showing out of skinny air.

Common Potoo vs. Great Potoo: Size and Description

The frequent potoo seems to be a bit like a cross between the Eastern whippoorwill and the Chuck-will’s Widow or nightjar. The birds measure between 13 and 15 inches, with lengthy, mottled brown-red, black, grey, and white plumage in camouflage that resembles tree bark. They are most simply recognized at night time by the reflection of lights hitting their large yellow eyes. You might also hear their haunting songs within the bushes. Males and females look comparable and most people can not inform them aside. The birds even have two or three slits of their eyelids, permitting them to see by way of the eyelids when closed, permitting additional camouflage. They have vast mouths with a single tooth within the higher mandible, used for foraging.

The nice potoo, however, measures between 18 and 23 inches, the biggest of the potoos. The chook has a brief neck, giant mouth, and big darkish eyes with yellow-orange irises. Males and females bear the identical mottle grey, brown, white, burgundy, and black plumage which supplies them with camouflage amongst bushes. Their wings are available an elliptical form, with an elongated tail which helps them maneuver in flight. Their tails have white bars throughout them solely viewable whereas the chook is in flight.

Common Potoo Vs. Great Potoo: Behavior

Common potoos mimic their perches after they relaxation. That is, they use a way referred to as masquerading, meaning they mix in almost flawlessly with their environments. If you go searching amongst tree stumps or useless wooden of their area, you could properly move a number of with out each noticing them. Both grownup and juvenile frequent potoos hunt down useless wooden perches that match their plumage and their physique diameter in order that they might seem to merely be a continuation of the useless wooden. If the birds are startled by people or predators, they might react by rapidly flying away, making an attempt intimidation with beak-opening, or making an attempt to instantaneously regaining composure and remaining hidden.

The nice potoo perches excessive above its foraging and searching grounds. They, too, mix in with their perches by selecting stumps and bushes matching their diameter and coloring. In most circumstances, they select useless wooden and stumps with bark matching their feather patterns and shutting their eyes. They look by way of slits of their eyes to look at for prey or predator and stay nonetheless practically most of their solitary lives.

Common Potoo vs. Great Potoo: Habitat and Range

The frequent potoo sees vast distribution all through southern Central America and into the lowlands of northern and central South America. The birds could also be present in Trinidad and Tobago, and most of mainland South America, save for Chile, largely located inside the Andes mountains to the Atlantic coast. Common potoo sometimes reside inside open woodlands and savannas, avoiding cooler mountainous ranges.

As to the good potoo, the vary spreads from southern Mexico into Guatemala by way of most of Central America and down into Brazil and Bolivia. The chook tends to remain in humid and semi-humid forest habitats and dense lowland forests. They make take up residence in forest edges and clearings, as properly, starting from the foothills into second progress. Great potoos might also be present in woodlands and plantations, and the occasional meadow, however at all times the place bushes are current and so they mix in.

Common Potoo vs. Great Potoo: Diet

Both frequent potoo and nice potoo are nocturnal hunters. This means they use their vast mouths to seize their insect prey as they hunt and forage. Common potoo relish ants, flies, moths, termites, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. The nice potoo eats beetles, katydids (just like cicadas), and the uncommon bat or smaller chook.

Both birds use their distinctive camouflage to perch on branches and stay practically immobile and wait for his or her prey to return their means. Typically, this implies sitting on a decrease, uncovered department and sitting as immobile as they will handle, which is, the truth is, almost completely completely so. When they spot their prey, they launch from their branches and catch the prey immediately, then return to their perches, after consuming their meals complete.

Common Potoo vs. Great Potoo: Conservation Status

Thankfully, each the frequent potoo and the good potoo have been deemed by the IUCN as species within the “least concern” standing. The birds have giant ranges, that means they might nest in broad areas not extremely particular habitats. The birds additionally every have no less than 500,000 mature people recorded. The inhabitants of the birds is considerably declining, although, as habitat destruction happens.