28 January 2010, Gaillard Road, Gamboa, Panama

This sleeping bird kept its eyes completely closed most of the time. Here a narrow slit is visible.

This is the largest of the Potoos ranging from southern Mexico to Brazil
and Paraguay. It is only a few inches longer than the Common Potoo but
appears to be more than twice the bulk of that smaller bird. I was pleased
to finally catch up with this rare, spectacular bird having missed it on a
previous trip to Panama. This year, on our visit it was known to be
occupying a favorite day roost, but had been missed the previous two days.
Potoos are cryptically colored night-birds, similar to the unrelated
frogmouths of Australia and New Guinea. This species is the size of a
large owl. It occurs in two color morphs, one grayer and the other washed
more or less heavily with buffy brown as seen in this individual.

It is usually pronounced Poh-TOO

Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope 3 | 30X WA | hand-held
(no adapter)