Oilbird
Steatornis caripensis · Bird
A big brown night bird of northern South America and Trinidad, nearly half a metre long, that roosts and nests by the thousand in caves from sea level to the high Andes and flies out at night to eat the fruit of palms and laurels in the forest. It finds its way in the dark with loud clicks. Its chicks grow fatter than their parents, and every midsummer at Caripe the local people knocked down the nests, killed the chicks and melted their fat at the cave mouth. Humboldt found it the only cooking oil of the monks' kitchen at Caripe, and the oil also fed lamps.
- Danger
- Harmless
- How it is met
- In colonies, by night
- Size
- Small
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Gives
Sources
- Abraham Turner, Steatornis caripensis (oilbird). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 2022.
- Oilbird. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026.
- Guacharo des cavernes. Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre, 2026.
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