Rufous Potoo

Phyllaemulor bracteatus

The smallest potoo and possibly the least-seen. Glows rufous in torchlight deep in Amazonian forest. Rarely photographed.

Population: Unknown; no numeric global population estimate published — IUCN's 2024 global assessment records the population trend as decreasing
Habitat: Understory and mid-story of primary and mature secondary terra firme Amazonian forest, favoring nutrient-poor, sandy-soil "blackwater" regions and swampy palm (campinarana) forest, from lowlands up to about 550 m elevation
Fun fact: The smallest and most oddly patterned potoo (21-25 cm, 46-58 g), it roosts upright on broken-off stubs by day in a bizarre near-vertical stance with slow swaying motions, its deep rufous plumage dotted with large white spots making it look uncannily like a dead, moss-flecked leaf or twig; long bristles fringe its lores.
Range: Amazon basin: southern Venezuela and the Guiana Shield (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana) south through Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, with a hypothetical record in Bolivia
Diet: Insectivorous; a nocturnal sit-and-wait predator that sallies from a low perch to snatch flying insects (moths, beetles, and other orders, at least five taxonomic orders documented) in flight, then returns to the same perch
Size: 0.23 m

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