Today in seriously, what the heck is that, we’re meeting a creature that looks so strange and so unsettlingly like a real live Muppet that we won’t blame you for being skeptical at first. This thing is so weird.
The Nyctibius grandis, more commonly known as the great potoo, is native to Central and South America. It’s a nocturnal bird that relies on its great camouflage to stay off predators’ radar and as a result, it’s rarely seen and considered fairly elusive.
Also, it looks like a Muppet.
It’s also called the “great potoo,” a perfectly silly name for a perfectly silly bird.
When perched in a tree, its brown-gray feathers blend into the bark, making it look like just another branch.
Their large eyes help them see in the dark and catch the insects they eat.
While they’re rarely seen because of their expert camouflage, the great potoo is actually not rare at all. They have a large range and habitat, and are not considered threatened at all — not yet, anyway.
The great potoo is also truly great in size, growing up to two feet long. During the day, they perch motionless in trees with their beaks pointed upwards, doing their best impression of a broken branch. Come nightfall, they fly out and feed on locusts, crickets, katydids, and sometimes even small bats.
This one is not amused that we think it looks like a Muppet.
The potoo also makes a distinctive, bark-like sound when it calls.
It also looks like it’s just seen something it can’t unsee.
But because they’re hard to find, there’s a lot we still don’t know about the great potoo, such as exactly when its breeding season is.
But we do know that it’s probably unlike any other bird you’ve ever seen!
If you’ve been reading ViralNova for any period of time, you know we love to cover the weird and hard to believe, and even we were a bit taken aback by the great potoo. But creatures like this make the world such a wonderful place, so we’re glad we share the planet with such a fantastic bird.
