Great Potoo – A Very Creepy-Looking Bird
The Great Potoo is one bird you will be dead scared of; it is a bird almost everyone will be scared of, ornitho-phobic or otherwise. The great potoo is larger than a crow at 48–60 cm (19-24 inches) tall and 360-650 grams (12.7 oz-1.4 lb). Wingspan in these bird is typically around 70 to 80.4 cm (27.6 to 31.7 in), though larger specimens can attain 100 cm (39 in). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 34.2 to 40 cm (13.5 to 15.7 in), the tail is 22 to 29.5 cm (8.7 to 11.6 in), the bill is 1.6 to 2.2 cm (0.63 to 0.87 in) and the tarsus is 2.6 to 3.7 cm (1.0 to 1.5 in)
Ranges from
Southern Mexico
Northeastern Guatemala
Central America
South America
Bolivia and Southeastern Brazil
It is a nocturnal bird that prefers to keep itself hidden – a motive that is very efficiently achieved by means of its light brown/grey plumage, which acts as a pretty great camouflage. During the day, the bird sits perched upon branches of trees, motionless, with its beak pointed towards the sky. Only at night does it emerge, pouncing on its prey, returning to its perch in order to seek out its next meal, which consists mainly of locusts, beetles, katydids, and other large insects, and occasionally bats. – Unbelievable Facts