Order
Caprimulgiformes
Family
Nyctibiidae
Genus
Nyctibius
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Great Potoo Nyctibius grandis

Kimberly Adams
Version: 1.0 — Published January 28, 2011

Behavior

Introduction

This species of bird roosts during the day in very tall trees in tropical forests and is well hidden by its cryptic coloring (Wetmore 1968).  The bird usually faces the upward slope of a medium-sized branch with its eyes slitted and head feathers erect such that it looks like a broken off stub. It limits its movement to subtle turns of its head side to side. However, when alarmed, the potoo quickly stretches and raise sits head until it is vertical, closes its eyes completely and compresses its head feathers such that it resembles part of the branch even more (Perry 1979).

Territoriality

It is unclear if there are defined territories, but since this species is nonmigratory, there is a good chance that individuals maintain loose territories consisting of their favorite perches (Cohn-Haft 1999).

Sexual Behavior

The sexes of potoos are indistinguishable in the field, thus there is little information available (Vanderwerf 1988).

Social and interspecific behavior

Mostly solitary.

Predation

No information.

Recommended Citation

Adams, K. (2011). Great Potoo (Nyctibius grandis), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.grepot1.01