Northern Potoo
Nyctibius jamaicensis
Bizarre, big-headed, and bug-eyed nocturnal bird with yellow eyes and cryptically streaked plumage. Found in wooded and semiopen habitats in tropical lowlands, including mangroves. Roosts upright on branches, where it blends in and looks like a broken tree branch. At night in a flashlight beam, eyes reflect like brilliant amber coals (nightjar eyes are duller and owl eyes have a dull reflection and are rarely visible). Hunts from posts and prominent perches; sallies out for insects and often returns to the same perch.
Identification
It is a fairly large bird with a length of 38-46 centimetres. It has a long tail, long pointed wings, large head, very short legs and a small bill with a large gape. It is most commonly seen perched motionless in an upright position on branches or posts. The plumage is grey-brown with an intricate pattern of black, grey and cream markings. The cheeks are pale with a dark malar stripe below them. The large eye has a yellow iris which can shine red in light at night. The bird's calls are hoarse and guttural. The common potoo is virtually identical in appearance, but has a very different voice consisting of a series of mournful, wailing whistles. The great potoo is larger and paler, with no dark malar stripe.<p>The song is a "rough, squalling kwaaah, kwa-kwa-kwa". It also makes "an abrupt, emphatic rrah!" and "a barking alarm call".
Taxonomy
The northern potoo was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the nightjar like species in the genus Caprimulgus and coined the binomial name Caprimulgus jamaicensis. Gmelin based his description on earlier accounts of the bird in Jamaica, including Hans Sloane's "Wood owle" published in 1725 and John Latham's "Jamaican goatsucker" published in 1783. The northern potoo is now one of the seven potoos placed in the genus Nyctibius that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from Ancient Greek nuktibios meaning "night-feeding", from nux night and bios "life". The specific epithet is from the toponym, Jamaica, the type locality.<p>The northern potoo was formerly classified as a subspecies of the common potoo (Nyctibius griseus), but since 1995 it has usually been treated as a separate species based on the differences in vocalizations. <p>Five subspecies as recognised:
- Scientific name
- Nyctibius jamaicensis
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- Order
- Caprimulgiformes
- Family
- Nyctibiidae
- Genus
- Nyctibius
Range and habitat
The five subspecies are distributed across Central America and the Caribbean. It mainly occurs in lowland areas where it inhabits woodland and scrubland with clearings and farmland with scattered trees. It is sometimes seen around golf courses and urban areas. It is a occasional visitor to Puerto Rico and its permanent presence in Cuba is unconfirmed, but reported.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
A single egg is laid on a broken branch with no nest material used. Both parents are involved in incubating the egg and feeding the young bird.<p>It feeds on large insects such as moths or beetles. It hunts from a perch, sitting and waiting for prey then sallying out to catch it in flight.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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