Featured Event

Tawny Frogmouth

Scientific Name: Podargus strigoides

Fast Fact:
Frogmouths are nocturnal. If disturbed during their daytime naps, they make a buzzing sound like a bee, or clap their beaks to try to scare the intruder away.

Tawny Frogmouth“Wow, look at that owl sitting there!” Actually, it’s not an owl, it’s a tawny frogmouth or “false owl.” Owls belong to a different order of birds (Strigiformes), than the frogmouths, which belong to the order Caprimulgiformes.

STATUS: Not endangered.

HABITAT: Throughout Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and other larger offshore islands (except Kangaroo Island) where there are trees, especially eucalyptus and acacia, and open areas.

DIET: The tawny frogmouth is primarily insectivorous, but it also eats small mammals, birds, frogs, and occasionally fruit. Rather than actively hunt for its food, as owls do, a frogmouth will sit very still on a branch or a stump and blend in with the background. When an insect or mouse comes near, the frogmouth snatches up its unsuspecting prey.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Tawny frogmouths’ feathers are a mottled grayish/brownish/silverish color with some black and white streaks and spots thrown in. This cryptic coloration lets them blend into stumps and branches. The beak is short, broad, and flat, with a hooked tip. The inside of the mouths is yellow. The open mouth of the frogmouth resembles a frog’s open mouth! They have bristly feathers around the top and sides of the nostrils that partially hide the beak. They have medium rounded wings and a long tail. Their legs are short, and their feet are small, weak, and used for perching, not hunting (another difference between owls and frogmouths). The eyes are yellow and the bill is a bluish gray which blends in with the rest of the coloration of the body. Males and females look alike and are generally the same size, about 12 ½ to 18 inches.

Everlasting Love

Tawny frogmouths mate for life. They will use the same nest year after year. They nest in the forks of tree branches, hollow tree holes, or old nests of other birds and build a rather flimsy, loose platform of twigs lined with leaves. One to four white eggs are laid a few days apart. Incubation, which begins after the final egg is laid, is 28 to 32 days long. Both parents share the duties of caring for and feeding the nestlings when they hatch. Chicks fledge (attempt their first flight) 25 to 35 days after hatching.