This Strange Looking Bird Cries Instead of Chirping [Watch]

A love of birds was instilled in me starting at a very young age. My mom loved birds. She fed them, housed them, read about them, and watched them. Her favorites and mine were Bluebirds.

When my mom passed away, I took all of her bird books back to Kentucky with me. I'm really the only one that loves birds as much as she did. Many of her books have photos and facts about birds from all over the world. Most of the birds, I have never seen or even heard of and this is one of those birds.

I saw the Popoo on a Facebook nature group I belong to. Then, of course, I quickly looked it up to get more info. This bird is super interesting.

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Many things about this bird are unique and strange. First of all the Potoo or ghost bird, makes a crying, yelling, and sometimes screaming sound instead of a tweet, whistle, or chirp. Another trait that stands out is their appearance. It looks kind of spooky and weird, not like your typical bird. The Popoo has furring-looking feathers, big eyes, and a huge mouth. If you saw this sitting on a fence post during the night and whaling, it would scare you to death.

Meet the Popoo. This one appears to be a young one.

You won't find this bird anywhere in the Tristate, it's native to Mexico, Central America, and South America. You might even see them in the Bahamas.

They are nocturnal and feed on flying insects at dusk. As far as breeding, the Potoo, very much like the Bluebird, is monogamous and both parents incubate the eggs and take care of the baby birds.

The Popoo is both cute and sort of hideous at the same time, but I really like it. Listen to more of the odd sounds he makes. It sounds like he is yelling, MOM! 

[Wikipedia]