Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis)

These birds are nocturnal and live in a cave, navigating by echolocation. We had a steep climb down into a ravine to see them, and the guide used a red-filtered torch to illuminate them, hence I had to play around with white balance to get a more natural shot, apart from the red eyes. The chicks grow very fat before they are able to fly - they get to be half again as big as the parents. Most of this bulk is fat: they are fed a very fatty diet of oily palm-fruit. The indigenous people used to capture the chicks and boil them down for oil which they used for lamps and for cooking.