ABSTRACT
Nyctibiidae is a family composed of a monotypic genus with seven species restricted to the Neotropics. Potoos forage on insects at dusk and night; during daylight hours potoos adopt postures that resemble stumps or broken branches. All seven potoos are garbed in cryptic, bark-patterned plumages allowing individuals to easily blend into substrate upon which they roost, even out in open. The White-winged Potoo Nyctibius leucopterus, relatively recently rediscovered at Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), produces a song of a single-mournful descending whistle, which many local people believe is the nocturnal call of Curupira, a rambunctious and troublesome mythical creature. Although potoos are frequently heard singing on moonlit nights in forested and deforested areas, they are rarely captured by regular daily passive mist-netting operations. Molt patterns of potoos are essentially unknown, but may be like nightjars and follow a Complex Basic Strategy; the extent of preformative molt is unknown, but may be partial again like many Caprimulginae and Strigidae.
