A frightening hunter from the depths of the Amazon rainforest.
If looks could kill, you'd be entering a world of pain.
This is the flying menace of the jungle.
The wide-eyed living insecticide.
This is the potoo.
Hi, my name is Aranya and you're watching Animalogic's world of birds.
Today we're talking about a bird that permanently looks like
someone walked in on them while they were doing their business in the restroom.
These are potoos.
They're a bird family found exclusively in the tropical regions of Central and South America.
There are seven different species of these wide-eyed weirdos, and they've adapted to
habitats as diverse as the dry deserts of Colombia and the wetlands of the Brazilian Pantanal.
These species range in size from 30 to 70 centimetres,
or roughly about the size of a pigeon.
If they look a little familiar that's because we
did an episode a couple years ago on their cousins the frogmouths.
Danielle and the team traveled to Australia to meet the aussie version of the potoo.
I think I'm getting some side-eye from this Tawny frogmouth.
I'm definitely getting side-eye.
So this friend here, is a Tawny frogmouth,
and despite how much he might look like an owl, it's not even related.
It's actually part of the nightjar family.
This is definitely a case of convergent evolution so they end up looking similar but
stem from completely different lineages.
Their resemblance is not only due to their being related,
but also because their behaviour is quite similar.
During the day they sit on a branch, adjusting their head to look like
they're a part of the tree, and they spend their nights looking for food.
These birds are night owls, but please don't call them that.
They actually lack the unique owl feature of
facial discs that usually help owls localize sound.
In fact, these birds are actually more closely related to hummingbirds than to Hedwig.
Potoos have a few adaptations that make them unique among birds.
Their eyes and bills are huge.
They've been described as being little more than a flying mouth.
That's a solid burn.
Their bill opens from ear to ear, and the inside has
bright colouration that is thought to attract insects.
The upper mandible has a tooth-like protrusion that helps them grab prey.
Despite having a pseudo-tooth and pointy bill, they don't rip their prey apart.
They just swallow it whole.
The vast majority of their prey are nocturnal insects.
Moths are their favourite food, but they'll eat anything that flies.
The great potoos are big enough to swallow small birds whole.
Finding their prey presents a lot of challenges.
The rainforest at night is almost pitch black.
Other predators use their sense of hearing and chemoreception to find their prey,
but as far as we know, potoos use only their sight.
Their gigantic eyes are perfectly adapted to low-light situations.
The eyeballs are enormous to provide a longer distance between the lens and the retina.
This helps them get more light into the eye and focus on moving prey at night.
And their large retina helps potoos keep high visual acuity when hunting.
Despite being predators themselves, potoos are harmless to larger animals
like ocelots and birds of prey.
Their defence strategy consists of hiding in plain sight and being spooky looking.
During the day they stand on a branch and pretend to be an extension of it.
While being perfectly still, they keep an eye on their surroundings
through specialized slits on their eyelids.
That's right, they can see with their eyes closed.
They might not be able to see things in great detail,
but they can see movement and changes in light intensity.
If they realize something is approaching them, they'll do one of the following things:
They'll fly away, they'll double down and pretend to be a branch even harder,
or they'll open their big ol' eyes and ruffle their feathers to make themselves appear bigger.
The last option is what has made them legendary.
Their giant peepers are a classic example of startle colouration.
The idea is that predators will get so weirded out by them that they'll just leave the bird alone.
The common and northern potoos have menacing bright yellow eyes.
Meanwhile, the great potoo has large black eyes that gives them a sinister look.
To keep up with their spooky aesthetics
these birds have haunting calls that make their environments unnerving.
The seven potoo species look alike and are tricky to tell apart.
The common and northern potoo, for example,
are identical, and they've only been recognized as separate species since 2016.
The only way to tell them apart is by their call.
Northern potoos, which are common in Central America and the Caribbean sound like this...
and the common potoos, which are mostly found in South America, sound like this...
Great potoos have a melancholic call that has earned them their nickname "poor-me-ones".
Poor guys.
When they're not hunting or cosplaying as sticks, these birds are most likely taking care of a baby.
Their nesting strategy can be described as... minimalist.
They find a concave branch or stump and lay their egg there.
No twigs, no padding necessary.
After about a month the baby hatches.
Both parents take an active role in feeding it.
After another month, the youngling is ready to go on its way.
And then they'll be set to spook the neighbourhood for over a decade.
Well done little goth fellas.
Let me know in the comments down below and don't forget to subscribe for new episodes every week.
Keep soaring to new heights.
I'll see you later, bye.