Today’s and tomorrow’s birds are ones I’ve never seen, but intend to go on a quest for during my next excursion to Costa Rica. First is the Potoo, a very well camouflaged type of nightjar that comes in three species: Great, Northern and Common. I don’t care which one I see, I just want to see one.
These rarely-seen-but-often-heard nocturnal birds belong to the family Nyctibiidae, which only occurs in the New World tropics. The Common Potoo and Northern Potoo are virtually identical, while the Great is much larger. During the day, these birds’ cryptic plumage and signature stretched-out pose makes them difficult to distinguish from the broken-branch stubs and posts on which they typically roost, their mottled feathers blending in perfectly with their woody perch.
At night, when they are active hunters and open their huge eyes, they can be mistaken for owls. They sally out in the dark to catch large flying insects – and in the case of the Great Potoo even small bats – with their large gaping mouths open wide. The Great’s eerie deep roaring GWAAAAAA while perched, and the higher pitched and more emphatic GWOK emitted in flight, are described as otherworldly.
A professional photographer I know is currently in Manuel Antonio and is headed for Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula in a few days, either place in which he might be able to spot and take some images of a Potoo. If he picks up this gauntlet and is successful, we’ll provide an addendum blog of his photos here. Meanwhile I include a shot of the Great Potoo by Ged Caddick of Terra Incognita Ecotours taken in Brazil’s Pantanal and a nice Common in Costa Rica by Julian Londono Jaramillo.
Here is a nice little intro to the Potoo by David Attenborough, again in Brazil.
Constantly while I was in Costa Rica, I believed every post and branch would end in a camouflaged Potoo – I really tried. Who wants to go Potoo hunting with me this spring? Let’s do this!
Courtesy of Ged Caddick, Terra Incognita Ecotours
frances figart 
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