I particularly like the bushy eyebrows and the smug, self-important, look on its face. Potoos are cryptically patterned nocturnal birds in the family Nyctibiidae. By day they perch upright on a post or tree-stump where they resemble the extension of a dead branch. They are very easy to overlook.
This species is polymorphic with red and dark morphs as well as the more typical morph exemplified here. Because of its distinctly different vocalizations, most authorities now split this species from the otherwise identical Northern Potoo (N. jamaicensis) which replaces it from Mexico to Costa Rica and on the islands of Jamaica and Hispanola.
Two subspecies are currently recognized. This is the widespread nominate race. It differs weakly from another race (N. g. panamensis) found in Panama and South America west of the Andes by its slightly smaller size.
It is usually pronounced Poh-TOO
Nikon P510
Reference:
Voudouris, Peter. 2015. Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus), Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online