Characteristics
It is the largest species in the family. It is between 45 and 57 centimeters long and weighs between 360 and 620 grams (Cohn-Haft, 2012). Its wingspan reaches 1 meter. It has an enormous mouth and differs from other species in the same family due to its whitish plumage.
According to Wetmore (1968), it presents two color phases, the gray phase and the brown phase.
The adult is grayish in color, with spots and streaks of brown, white and brown in various tones. They are slightly barred, and speckled with gray and greyish brown. The wing covers are dark gray lined with brown. The primaries and secondaries are black, barred indistinctly with dull gray, with the outer edges marked heavily with white or grayish white. The tail has well-defined black edges and is heavily barred. The throat and neck are pale, ranging from pale beige to pale cinnamon, with fine barring and dark spots. Chest and flanks with spots and streaks in brown, brown, yellow, white, dark brown and matte black. The belly is whitish. The undertail feathers are white, with some grayish brown bars.
The iris is dark brown or orange, the beak is brown, paler in the proximal portion of the commissure and darker at the distal tip, the tarsi and feet are yellow.
Juveniles of the species have plumage similar to the adult, however they are paler on the head, back, chest and flanks with barring and very few darker colored spots.
Its bizarre vocalization is often the source of legends and fears among the rural population. The nocturnal “roar” that residents of the Minas Gerais forest area attribute to the folkloric character known as caboclo d`água is probably of this type.
