Breeding

Little information on seasonality of breeding across its wide geographic range. Breeding has been reported in March and April in Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986); in April (Hilty and Brown 1986) and June-August in Venezuela (Vanderwerf 1988); in November in Suriname (Haverschmidt 1948); and in February in Guyana (Penard and Penard 1908).

The nest itself generally consists of "nothing more than a crevice in a high branch of a large tree" (Young and Zook 1999).  The egg is white with blotches of dark brown, grey, and light purple at the wider end (Cohn-Haft 1999). Egg size: about 52 x 38 mm (Cohn-Haft 1999).

The species only has one chick at a time which it generally conceals in its feathers while perched on a branch such that only the chicks head is visible. The chick grows rapidly and by 2 weeks old, already has some body feathers on back and wings and demonstrates the camouflaging behavior of stretching out and bill-pointing. After about 5 weeks the nestling is a two-thirds version of the adult, but with a lighter build, paler plumage, shorter tail, and smaller bill with less rectal bristles. The fledging period of the Great Potoo is at least 55 days (Vanderwerf 1988).

Potoos are monogamous, but it is unclear if the young is cared for by one or both parents as only one parent is generally seen at the nest at any one time. As potoo sexes are indistinguishable in the field, such observations could have been of the same parent or of both parents trading off (Vanderwerf 1988). Similar studies of the Common Potoo (Skutch 1970) indicate that both parents are active in raising of the young, but are rarely seen together at the nest especially during the day.