Nyctibius jamaicensis
Silhouette: Dominic Sherony (photo) and Albertonykus (silhouette) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The northern potoo (Nyctibius jamaicensis) is a nocturnal bird belonging to the potoo family, Nyctibiidae. It is found from Mexico south to Costa Rica, and on the islands of Jamaica and Hispaniola (in the Dominican Republic and Haiti). It was formerly classified as a subspecies of the common potoo (Nyctibius griseus) but is now usually treated as a separate species based on differences in vocalizations.
The northern potoo was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the nightjar like species in the genus Caprimulgus and coined the binomial name Caprimulgus jamaicensis. Gmelin based his description on earlier accounts of the bird in Jamaica, including Hans Sloane's "Wood owle" published in 1725 and John Latham's "Jamaican goatsucker" published in 1783. The northern potoo is now one of the seven potoos placed in the genus Nyctibius that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The genus name is from Ancient Greek nuktibios meaning "night-feeding", from nux night and bios "life". The specific epithet is from the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tikal National Park | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 2 | Santa Rosa National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Calakmul Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 4 | Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 5 | Biotopo Cerro Cahuí | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 6 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 7 | Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 8 | Pico Bonito National Park | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 9 | Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras |
No species of the same family or order lives in San Pedro Sula, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Potoo sighting in San Pedro Sula on a given day, based on 55 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 77th most-seen of the 187 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Northern Potoo in San Pedro Sula on a given day, against under 5% in July and September–December, the lowest months. Those are among San Pedro Sula's driest months, with about 75 mm of rain a month against 190 mm in October.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Northern Potoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only San Pedro Sula, in our data
San Pedro Sula is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Northern Potoo sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Northern Potoo is recorded against all the birds logged in San Pedro Sula (55 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
