frogmouths

FROGMOUTHS-(Podargidae Family of 12 species-3 in Australia)
Moderately small to quite large nocturnal birds with large wide heart shaped bills,small weak feet,large rounded wings and long tails.They are not owls but have a owl-like appearance and are more a nightjar. Frogmouths use their wide bills to scoop insects and small mammals,
lizards, mice and frogs from the ground.Plumage is mottled greys,browns and buff,bark like colours that hide the frogmouths and pose as a broken branch by day.
Frogmouths live in the tropical forests and bush country of southeast Asia and in Australia. They are found from India to the Solomon Islands. The large tawny frogmouth, or mopoke, is found in most of Australia and in Tasmania. Recently one species has been found in Yunnan, southern China.
They are fast fliers and their flight is silent for their wing feathers are downy, like those of owls.

The Tawny Frogmouth is probably the best-known of Australian nocturnal birds, especially because of its habit of feeding along country roads. Also it is often common in urban parks and gardens.Frogmouths are seen singly or in pairs, and are nowhere abundant.
OTHER NAMES:Mopoke,Night Hawk.
DESCRIPTION:Plumage overall grey or grey- brown streaked and mottled lighter and darker greys,and often with tawny-browns above.Colour variable,from greys without any brown tone,to a colour phase with greys replaced by tawny-brown.Bill very broad,deep hooked,surrounded by bristles.Eyes large,bright yellow.Size33-47cm.
VOICE:A low far-carrying ,'wooom,wooom',may be repeated for lengthy periods particularly in breeding season.
BREEDING:August-December.Nest a flimsy,loose and almost flat,platform of sticks lined with a few leaves,on a horizontal fork of a branch.Lay 2-3 white eggs.Incubation takes about 30 days, and the young fledge at 25 to 35 days. Both parents build, incubate and care for their young.
HABITATE:Where ever there are trees,eucalypt forest,woodlands,mulga scrub,interior watercourse timber and rainforest clearings.
LOCATION:It occurs almost throughout Australia (and southern New Guinea), wherever there are trees for roosting and open areas in which to hunt, but it does not generally inhabit rainforest.
HUNTING:Frogmouths hunt at night and catch their prey when it is motionless or only moving slowly. Some frogmouths wait on a perch and drop to the ground to catch an insect, while others fly around trees and bushes picking insects off leaves or branches. Insects are their main food, such arthropods as centipedes, cochroaches, scorpions, crickets, snails, spiders, moths, frogs and even small mammals, such as mice etc,and occasionally - small birds.
Quiet roads provide ideal conditions for feeding and under street lighting but the Tawny Frogmouth is not especially agile, either on the ground or on the wing, and many are killed by vehicles.