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.

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