Potoos Are Hauntingly Cute

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.

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 2,748,669

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, smart, 4k, nature documentary, nature doc, floralogic, second nature, potoo, potoos, ghost bird, scary bird, big eyes, frogmouth, tawny frogmouth, ghoul, master of disguise, camouflage, brazil, south america, central america, hidden, weird looking, terrifying bird, scariest bird, haunting, hauntingly cute, humongous mouth, spooky

Id: LkIlrNAGXQM

Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 23 2021