Common Pauraque

 

The Common Pauraque’s subtle brown, black, and gray plumage provides such excellent camouflage that it might as well be invisible in its daytime sleeping spots on open ground. If it wasn’t for our guide finding and pointing this bird out to us I’m sure we wouldn’t have found it.

From dusk till dawn, the male’s songs are anything but quiet, ranging from rising whistles to grunts that sound like frogs. It is skilled at catching flying insects and like all nightjars has a gaping wide mouth behind a tiny bill.

I wasn’t sure what this young couple was doing on the beach however upon inquiring I learned they were trying to see who would be the last to see the setting sun.