Potoo

Image: Yanayacu Biological Station

I got myself a guest post! When it comes to big, googly eyes, few can match your average squid, let along a particularly googly-eyed squid. Ernie Allison introduces us to a noble challenger of the feathered kind.

Closely related to nightjars and frogmouths, the Potoo is the avian equivalent of your crazy uncle. You know the one—when he shows up to the family reunion you can’t tell if he’s been hitting the bottle since 9 AM, or just coming off of another Special K bender.

Image: Reinaldo Aguilar
This facial expression is one of several reasons why the butler should be top of your list of suspects

During the day, the Potoo is deceptively demure. A relatively small bird, Potoos masquerade as tree stumps...

Image: Patty McGann
Common Potoo. There are 7 species in all

And quite expertly, I must add.

At dusk, however, they spring into action. The Potoo stalks the balmy nights of Central and South America’s tropics, driving fear into the hearts of its insect prey, presumably stunning victims with its penetrating stare, much like Greek mythology’s Medusa.

Video: James Wolfe

Indeed, ornithologist Mario Cohn-Haft has described the Potoo as, “little more than a flying mouth and eyes.”

Video: jonnytropics

Because its legs are too weak to travel along the ground, the Potoo darts to and from its perch, snapping up moths, grasshoppers, and flying beetles from the air. The examination of at least one Northern Potoo’s stomach contents revealed its ferocious appetite; researchers discovered a small bird that had been swallowed whole.

Image: jpeter4100/Rob Jarvis
Northern Potoo/Crazed Monster

Though the Potoo may have the look of a crazed monster, it has a lot of love in its heart—at least when it comes to matters of family. Potoos are monogamous, which automatically earns them a spot among the world’s more romantic birds.

Video: Aves Brasil
Potoos are also known as Pour-me-ones because of their bluesy call.
Judging from their eyes and the fact they already can't walk, I'd say they've had enough.

Potoo parents share the responsibility of incubating and rearing chicks, doting on their precious little birds for two months (quite a long time for a land bird) until they develop enough downy white feathers to camouflage themselves as fungus.

The Potoo is truly an odd bird. And like many of the animal kingdom’s quirkiest creatures, the Potoo has amassed a cult of followers who demonstrate their adoration with an endless stream of memes.

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Ernie Allison is a freelance writer for Bird Feeders who loves researching the world’s weirdest birds. His dream is to go on a birdwatching tour of every continent.