The Mysterious Oilbird of Central and Northern South America

What bird in the world provides oil for torches and is also a food source?  What single bird species lives in the darkness, regurgitates its food when it returns home, and finds its way thro echolocation like a bat AND belongs to the nightjar family?

Welcome to the world of highly remarkable and unusual birds brought to you strictly by natural selection.

These nocturnal fruit eaters, like bats, emit clicking sounds that can be heard by the human ear in
the range of 2 kHz.  This bird is mostly red-brown, black barring with white spots, and fossils have been found in France in Europe and Wyoming in the United States, making it much more widely distributed.  The species also clings to vertical surfaces, making it also similar to swallows, who also are considered to have nearly non-utile feet, since they spend most of their time in flight.  Light bothers their eyes, since they live in darkness within caves, and they will emit loud screams if they are so disturbed.  The Spanish name that they inherited is guacharo, which translates to "wailer."  They have been known to go as far as 75 miles in search of fruit, which includes figs, tropical laurels, nuts of oil palm, camphor, and incense.

Fruit is regurgitated for the young, which can weigh in the neighborhood of fifty percent more than their parents.  The chicks are the desired birds in view of their fat content regarding oil by natives and the original settlers in their native locales.

These common birds, or birds of least concern, are some of the most unusual examples to be encountered in the world.