Common potoo

Common potoo Strategy: masquerade as a broken branch. When it is disturbed, this night bird rises upright on its perch and points its bill at the sky, becoming a convincing snapped-off stub of wood. Narrow folds in the upper eyelids let it peek out while it seems to be asleep, so it keeps watch without breaking the pose. It does not even build a nest: the single egg sits in a small hollow along a branch. It lives across Central and South America and spends the day perched in plain view, so scan the tips of dead stumps and broken limbs at forest edges for one that looks a little too tidy.