Common Potoo / Grijze reuzennachtzwaluw, Butabuta granman

Common Potoo (Nyctibius griseus)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Foek Chin Joe	© Foek Chin Joe	© Foek Chin Joe
© Edo Goverse	© Armida Madngisa nature guide	© Ton Plug
French Guiana © Pascal Dubois	French Guiana © Pascal Dubois

Common Potoo: A well camouflaged big bird that in daytime rests upright in trees. At dusk it will catch insects, flying from its perch and return. It is smaller and darker than the Great Potoo.
InSeptember 2002 Foek Chin Joe discovered a nest with adult and young on a stump of a tree at the Vankweg near Groningen in Sarmacca. On such a place the bird is easily overlooked by predators and birders. Edo Goverse saw a bird between Patamacca and Moengo in August 2008. In French Guyana Pascal Dubouis photographed a Common Potoo near Mana in July 2002.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Common Potoo © Alexandre Renaudier

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Nyctibius griseus
Order:	Caprimulgiformes
Family:	Nyctibiidae, 5 in Suriname
Dutch:	Grijze reuzennachtzwaluw, Butabuta granman
English:	Common Potoo
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Butabuta granman
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Nictibio Grisáceo
Portugese (Brazil):	Unitau
Arowak:	Wobarra
Carib:	Iebiejau
French:	Ibijau gris

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 131 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 2 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 131 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 2 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).