Potoos (
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Nyctibiidae) are a group of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s related to the
nightjar
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...
s and
frogmouth
The frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds related to owlet-nightjars, swifts, and hummingbirds. Species in the group are distributed in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms.
Biology
They are named for their large flattened hooked bill and ...
s. They are sometimes called poor-me-ones, after their haunting
calls
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call, a type of betting in poker
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...
. The family Nyctibiidae was formerly included with the
nightjar
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...
s in the order
Caprimulgiformes
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tal ...
but is now placed in a separate order, Nyctibiiformes. There are seven species in two genera in tropical
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. Fossil evidence indicates that they also inhabited
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
during the
Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
.
Potoos are nocturnal
insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
s that lack the bristles around the mouth found in the true
nightjars
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...
. They hunt from a perch like a
shrike
Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera.
The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...
or
flycatcher. During the day they perch upright on tree stumps,
camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
d to look like part of the stump. The single spotted egg is laid directly on the top of a stump.
In
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, they are known as kakuy or cacuy from
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
meaning 'to remain'. In
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, they are called urutau from
Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to
Ethnography
* Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia)
* Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay
* ...
''guyra'' 'bird' and ''tau'' 'ghost'.
Evolution and taxonomy
![Paraprefica major](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Paraprefica_major.JPG)
The potoos are today an exclusively New World family, but they apparently had a much more widespread distribution in the past.
Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
remains of potoos dating from the
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
have been found in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
A complete skeleton of the genus ''
Paraprefica
''Paraprefica'' is an extinct genus of potoo (family Nyctibiidae) from the middle Eocene (c. 48 million years ago). Its fossil remains have been found in the Messel pit at Messel, Germany.
Taxonomy
It is the only known member of the extinct s ...
'' has been found in
Messel
Messel is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in Hesse near Frankfurt am Main in Germany.
The village is first mentioned, as ''Masilla'', in the Lorsch codex.
Messel was the property of the lords of Groschlag from ca. 1400 to 1799 ...
, Germany. It had skull and leg features similar to those of modern potoos, suggesting that it may be an early close relative of the modern potoos. Because the only fossils other than these ancient ones that have been found are recent ones of extinct species, it is unknown if the family once had a global distribution which has contracted, or if the distribution of the family was originally restricted to the Old World and has shifted to the New World.
[
A 1996 study of the ]mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...
of the potoos supported the monophyly
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic grou ...
of the family although it did not support the previous assumption that it was closely related to the oilbird
The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornith ...
s. The study also found a great deal of genetic divergence between the species, suggesting that these species are themselves very old. The level of divergence is the highest of any genus of birds, being more typical of the divergence between genera or even families. This raises the possibility that there are several cryptic species
In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
to be discovered. For example, the northern potoo was for a long time considered to be the same species as the common potoo
__NOTOC__
The common potoo, or poor-me-ones (''Nyctibius griseus''), or urutau is one of seven species of bird within the genus ''Nyctibius''. It is notable for its large, yellow eyes and comically wide mouth. Potoos are nocturnal and are relat ...
, but the two species have now been separated on the basis of their calls
Call or Calls may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Call, a type of betting in poker
* Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage
Music and dance
* Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...
. In spite of this there is no morphological way to separate the two species.
The family Nyctibiidae was introduced (as Nyctibie) in 1853 by the French naturalists Jean-Charles Chenu
Jean-Charles Chenu (30 August 1808 – 12 November 1879) was a French physician, naturalist and author.
Bibliography
Natural history
*''Illustrations conchyliologiques ou description et figures de toutes les coquilles connues vivantes et fossiles ...
and Œillet des Murs. Prior to this, its species were classified in the Caprimulgidae.
Species
The family Nyctibiidae contains seven species in two genera:
* Family Nyctibiidae Chenu & Des Murs, 1851
** Subfamily Nyctibiinae
Potoos (family Nyctibiidae) are a group of birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. They are sometimes called poor-me-ones, after their haunting calls. The family Nyctibiidae was formerly included with the nightjars in the order Caprimulg ...
Chenu & Des Murs, 1851
*** Genus '' Phyllaemulor'' Costa, Whitney, Braun, White, Silveira & Cleere 2018
**** Rufous potoo
The rufous potoo (''Phyllaemulor bracteatus'') is a species of bird in the family Nyctibiidae. It is the only member of the genus ''Phyllaemulor''. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Suriname Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela.Re ...
, ''Phyllaemulor bracteatus'' (Gould 1846)
*** Genus ''Nyctibius Bird genera
''Nyctibius'' is a genus of potoos, nocturnal birds in the family Nyctibiidae.
Etymology
The genus ''Nyctibius'' was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot to accommodate a single species, C ...
'' Vieillot
Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist.
Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collect ...
1816
**** Great potoo
The great potoo (''Nyctibius grandis'') is the largest potoo species and is widely distributed in Central and South America.
Much like owls, this species is nocturnal. It preys on large insects and small vertebrates, which it captures in sallies ...
, ''Nyctibius grandis'' (Gmelin 1789)
**** Long-tailed potoo, ''Nyctibius aethereus'' (zu Wied-Neuwied 1820)
**** Northern potoo, ''Nyctibius jamaicensis'' (Gmelin 1789)
**** Common potoo
__NOTOC__
The common potoo, or poor-me-ones (''Nyctibius griseus''), or urutau is one of seven species of bird within the genus ''Nyctibius''. It is notable for its large, yellow eyes and comically wide mouth. Potoos are nocturnal and are relat ...
or lesser potoo, ''Nyctibius griseus'' (Gmelin 1789)
**** Andean potoo, ''Nyctibius maculosus'' Ridgway 1912
**** White-winged potoo, ''Nyctibius leucopterus'' (zu Wied-Neuwied 1821)
Prior to 2018, ''Nyctibius'' was considered the only extant genus within the Nyctibiidae; however, a study that year found a deep divergence between the rufous potoo and all other species in the genus, leading it to be described in the new genus ''Phyllaemulor'' and expanding the number of genera within the family. This was followed by the International Ornithological Congress
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
in 2022.
In addition, the fossil genus ''Paraprefica
''Paraprefica'' is an extinct genus of potoo (family Nyctibiidae) from the middle Eocene (c. 48 million years ago). Its fossil remains have been found in the Messel pit at Messel, Germany.
Taxonomy
It is the only known member of the extinct s ...
'', the only member of the extinct subfamily Parapreficinae
''Paraprefica'' is an extinct genus of potoo (family Nyctibiidae) from the middle Eocene (c. 48 million years ago). Its fossil remains have been found in the Messel pit at Messel, Germany.
Taxonomy
It is the only known member of the extinct s ...
, is known from the Eocene of Germany (the Messel pit
The Messel pit (german: Grube Messel) is a disused quarry near the village of Messel ( Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse) about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of well-preserv ...
), marking the earliest fossil evidence of potoos. The fossil genus '' Euronyctibius'', from the Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
of France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, was formerly considered a potoo, but analysis supports it instead being a close relative of the oilbird
The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornith ...
(family Steatornithidae).
Description
The potoos are a highly conservative family in appearance, with all the species closely resembling one another; species accounts in ornithological literature remark on their unusual appearance.[Cohn-Haft, M (1999) "Family Nyctibiidae (Potoos)". ''in'' del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Sargatal, J. (eds). '']Handbook of the Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...
. Volume 5: Barn-Owls to Hummingbirds''. Lynx Editions. pp. 288–297 Potoos range from in length. They resemble upright sitting nightjar
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk ta ...
s, a closely related family ( Caprimulgidae). They also resemble the frogmouth
The frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds related to owlet-nightjars, swifts, and hummingbirds. Species in the group are distributed in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms.
Biology
They are named for their large flattened hooked bill and ...
s of Australasia, which are stockier and have much heavier bills. They have proportionally large heads for their body size and long wings and tails. The large head is dominated by a massive broad bill and enormous eyes. In the treatment of the family in the ''Handbook of the Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...
'', Cohn-Haft describes the potoos as "little more than a flying mouth and eyes". The bill, while large and broad, is also short, barely projecting past the face. It is delicate, but has a unique "tooth" on the cutting edge of the upper mandible that may assist in foraging. Unlike the closely related nightjars, the potoos lack rictal bristles around the mouth. The legs and feet are weak and used only for perching.
The eyes are large, even larger than those of nightjars. As in many species of nocturnal birds, they reflect the light of flashlights. Their eyes, which could be conspicuous to potential predators during the day, have unusual slits in the lids, which allow potoos to sense movement even when their eyes are closed. Their plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
is cryptic
Cryptic may refer to:
In science:
* Cryptic species complex, a group of species that are very difficult to distinguish from one another
* Crypsis, the ability of animals to blend in to avoid observation
* Cryptic era, earliest period of the Earth
...
, helping them blend into the branches on which they spend their days.
Distribution and habitat
The potoos have a Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
distribution. They range from Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
to Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, with the greatest diversity occurring in the Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
, which holds five species. They are found in every Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
and South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
n country. They also occur on three Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
islands: Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
and Tobago
Tobago () is an List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, island and Regions and municipalities of Trinidad and Tobago, ward within the Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trini ...
. The potoos are generally highly sedentary
Sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle type, in which one is physically inactive and does little or no physical movement and or exercise. A person living a sedentary lifestyle is often sitting or lying down while engaged in an activity like soci ...
, although there are occasional reports of vagrants, particularly species that have travelled on ships. All species occur in humid forests, although a few species also occur in drier forests.
Behavior
image:Nyctibius griseus 471885191 27f931630d o Crop.jpg, Common potoo
__NOTOC__
The common potoo, or poor-me-ones (''Nyctibius griseus''), or urutau is one of seven species of bird within the genus ''Nyctibius''. It is notable for its large, yellow eyes and comically wide mouth. Potoos are nocturnal and are relat ...
camouflaged on a stump
The potoos are highly nocturnal and generally do not fly during the day. They spend the day perched on branches with the eyes half closed. With their cryptic plumage they resemble stumps, and should they detect potential danger they adopt a "freeze" position which even more closely resembles a broken branch. The transition between perching and the freeze position is gradual and hardly perceptible to the observer.
The English zoologist Hugh Cott
Hugh Bamford Cott (6 July 1900 – 18 April 1987) was a British zoologist, an authority on both natural and military camouflage, and a scientific illustrator and photographer. Many of his field studies took place in Africa, where he was especia ...
, describing ''Nyctibius griseus
__NOTOC__
The common potoo, or poor-me-ones (''Nyctibius griseus''), or urutau is one of seven species of bird within the genus ''Nyctibius''. It is notable for its large, yellow eyes and comically wide mouth. Potoos are nocturnal and are relat ...
'' as "this wonderful bird", writes that it "habitually selects the top of an upright stump as a receptacle for its egg, which usually occupies a small hollow just, and only just, large enough to contain it ... the stump selected had thrown up a new leader just below the point of fracture ... and the birds sat facing this in such a way that when viewed from behind they came into line and blended with the grey stem."
Food and feeding
Potoos feed at dusk and at night on flying insects. Their typical foraging technique is to perch on a branch and occasionally fly out in the manner of a flycatcher in order to snatch a passing insect. They occasionally fly to vegetation to glean an insect off it before returning to their perch, but they do not attempt to obtain prey from the ground. Beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s form a large part of their diet, but they also take moths, grasshoppers and termites. One northern potoo was found with a small bird in its stomach as well. Having caught an insect, potoos swallow it whole without beating or crushing it.
Breeding
Potoos are monogamous
Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...
breeders and both parents share responsibilities for incubating the egg and raising the chick. The family does not construct a nest
A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...
of any kind, instead laying the single egg on a depression in a branch or at the top of a rotten stump. The egg is white with purple-brown spots. One parent, often the male, incubates the egg during the day, then the duties are shared during the night. Changeovers to relieve incubating parents and feed chicks are infrequent to minimise attention to the nest, as potoos are entirely reliant on camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
to protect themselves and their nesting site from predators. The chick hatches about one month after laying and the nestling phase is two months, a considerable length of time for a landbird. The plumage of nestling potoos is white and once they are too large to hide under their parents they adopt the same freeze position as their parents, resembling clumps of fungus.
Defense
The behaviors described above suggest that the common potoo adopts different defensive strategies to suit its circumstances. For a lone potoo, or a brooding adult with a potential predator close to the nest, the bird attempts to avoid detection by remaining motionless and relying on camouflage. If ineffective, the potoo breaks cover and attempts to intimidate the predator by opening its beak and eyes wide open while vocalizing or simply flies out of reach. Nocturnal predators rely less on vision for locating prey therefore a different strategy may be required at night.
References
*Cestari, C., Guaraldo, A., & Gussoni, C (n.d.). Nesting behavior and parental care of common potoo (Nyctibius griseus) in southern Brazil. The Wilson journal of ornithology, 102-106
*Meek, K. (n.d.) Mobbing. Mobbing, 1-12
External links
Potoo videos
on the Internet Bird Collection
{{Taxonbar, from=Q858186
Extant Eocene first appearances
*
Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Neotropics