Jon Atkinson - World and Wildlife Photographer

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TAWNY FROGMOUTH

The Tawny Frogmouth, Podargus strigoides, is an Australian variety of frogmouth, a type of bird found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmainiaand southern New Guinea.

Although related to owls, frogmouths are more closely related to nightjars and oilbirds.Males and females look alike and are 35–50 cm long. They have yellow eyes and a wide beak topped with a tuft of bristly feathers.They make loud clacking sounds with their beaks and emit a reverberating booming call.

Tawny Frogmouths hunt at night and spend the day roosting on a dead log or tree branch close to the tree trunk. Their camouflage is excellent staying very still and upright, they look just like part of the branch.The Tawny Frogmouth is almost exclusively insectivorous, feeding rarely on frogs and other small prey. They catch their prey with their beaks rather than with their talons, another way in which they are different from owls. Owls fly around at night hunting food, but Tawny Frogmouths generally remain sitting very still on a low perch, and wait for food to come to them. They catch prey with their beaks, and sometimes drop from their perch onto the prey on the ground.

When feeling threatened, the Tawny Frogmouth stays perfectly still, with eyes almost shut and with bill pointed straight, relying on camouflage for protection.

Tawny Frogmouths and owls both have anisodactyl feet - meaning that one toe is facing backwards and the other three face forwards. However, owls’ feet are much stronger than the feet of the Tawny Frogmouth as owls use their feet to catch their prey. Owls are also able to swing one of their toes around to the back (with a unique flexible joint) to get a better grip on their prey. Tawny Frogmouths have fairly weak feet as they use their beaks to catch their prey. Owls eat small mammals, like mice and rats, so their bones are shorter and stronger than those of Tawny Frogmouths which usually hunt smaller prey. Tawny Frogmouths typically wait for their prey to come to them, instead of hunting on the wing much like owls.

(Text courtesy of Wikipedia)

Tawny_Frogmouth 1: Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth: Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 2: Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 3: Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 4:Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 10:Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria.

Tawny_Frogmouth 7 Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 9 Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

Tawny_Frogmouth 6 Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.

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Tawny_Frogmouth 5: Tawny Frogmouth, Victoria, Australia.