Skip to main content

Not an owl and not a mopoke: call me frogmouth!


The Australian native bird, the tawny frogmouth, has been called many things such as an owl, a boobook, and a mopoke. But it is none of those. The tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides), although related to owls (strigoides means owl form), it is in the order Caprimulgiformes and more closely related to nightjars.

Tawny frogmouths are large, big-headed, neckless, short-legged, grey-feathered, rounded-winged nocturnal birds. Their eyes are large and yellow (similar to owl eyes), and their grey bills have tufts of hair, rather like whiskers. That sounds rather ugly, but they are, in fact, quite fascinating. That’s because they have a large mouth that resembles a frog’s mouth. And it looks like it is perpetually smiling.

They are extremely hard to find because they camouflage themselves into their surroundings. They measure up to 34-53 centimetres (13-21 inches) and weigh up to 680 grams (1.5 pounds), so they are large enough to be seen, but with their grey feathers they blend into the night, and they sleep quite still during the day.

The tawny frogmouth does not have strong legs or the talons (claws) that owls have. Owls use their talons to catch prey, such as mice. However, tawny frogmouths catch their prey with their strong beaks. Owls have narrow downward beaks that tear their prey apart, but tawny frogmouths have forward facing beaks that catch insects, moths, spiders, worms, snails, beetles, wasps, ants, and scorpions. Owls have eyes that are fully forward on the face, but tawny frogmouths have eyes to the side of the face. Owls make their homes in tree hollows, whereas tawny frogmouths build their nest in the forks of trees.

They live in forests and wooded areas and do not like rainforests or deserts. They are also quite often seen in urban areas with lots of trees. They form partnerships for life, so they are most often seen in pairs. Breeding season is from August to December, and they have one to three eggs. Both the male and the female tawny frogmouth share the incubation of the eggs and in feeding their young.


I photographed tawny frogmouths in Canberra – southeast Australia – and Adelaide in South Australia.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou