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Common Potoo: Branch or Bird?
A superbly camouflaged bird with a melodious, mournful song
© Sidnei Siqueira
Common Potoos are champions of camouflage. In the daytime these nocturnal creatures perch perfectly still on branches: heads pointed upward, bodies outstretched, and eyes closed down to tiny slits. It’s hard to tell where the branch ends and the bird’s body begins — which helps them avoid predators. They’re birds more often heard than seen; with a melodious but mournful song, made at dawn, dusk and by the light of the moon. The song earned potoos the name ‘Poor-me-one’ in Trinidad and Tobago.
BirdNote®
Common Potoo: Branch or Bird?
Written by Johanne Ryan
This is BirdNote.
[Trinidad and Tobago rainforest soundscape]
It’s a warm morning in the tropical rainforest. You grab your binoculars and scan the thick canopy… But you’re not spotting any birds. Just lots of green leaves and a tree stump.
Hold up — that tree stump isn’t a tree stump at all! It’s… a bird.
Common Potoos are champions of camouflage. In the daytime these nocturnal creatures perch perfectly still on branches: heads pointed upward, bodies outstretched, and eyes closed down to tiny slits. With their cryptic colouration of brown, splashes of gray, and black spots, it’s hard to tell where the branch ends and the bird’s body begins. It’s a wondrous adaptation to avoid predators.
[Common Potoo song]
They’re birds more often heard than seen; with a melodious but mournful song, made at dawn, dusk and by the light of the moon. The song earned potoos the name ‘Poor-me-one’ in Trinidad and Tobago.
[Common Potoo song]
At dusk, Common Potoos awaken and take flight. They use their large yellow-orange eyes, long wings and wide mouth to sally from a perch and gulp down flying insects. They can take in moths, beetles and even large fireflies!
At the end of the night shift, potoos return to their branches to hide in plain sight for another day.
[Trinidad and Tobago rainforest soundscape]
For BirdNote, I’m Johanne Ryan.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Environmental ML125525 recorded by Thomas J. Walker, and Common Potoo ML59964 recorded by Paul A. Schwartz.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote November 2023
Narrator: Johanne Ryan
ID# CPOT-01-2023-11-09 CPOT-01
Johanne Ryan
Writer NarratorSights & Sounds
