Wild Encounters: Tawny Frogmouth

Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides)

With the deadliest of stares, the Tawny frogmouth is one of Australia’s most beloved birds. This funny-looking nocturnal predator with striking yellow eyes and its broad mouth is found all along the Australian East coast. On one of our recent beach outings, we discovered with great surprise a Tawny frogmouth nest perched above the car park. Watching these odd native birds blend in with their surroundings, cuddling up and taking great care of their offspring was a very rewarding experience.

Wild Tawny Facts

1. One of the best examples of cryptic plumage camouflage in Australian birds. They freeze into the form of a broken tree branch, with head and beak thrust upwards to become practically invisible in broad daylight.

2. Tawny frogmouths mate for life, staying in the same established territory. Maintaining physical contact is an integral part of their lifelong bond. They are often found leaning against and grooming each other.

3. They use a number of different calls to express everything from fear to annoyance. They are also known to cry a gut-wrenching low whimper that can go for days if they lose a partner.

4. If a predator persists, it can get messy. First, they use their beaks to peck at nest intruders, if this fails, the tawny will spray the predator with their faeces, which confuses the predator, especially snakes and monitor lizards and it can take weeks for the smell to go away.

5. They are carnivorous and considered one of Australia’s most effective pest control birds, as their diet consists largely of species regarded as pests, such as moths, spiders, worms, slugs, wasps, ants, centipedes and scorpions.

6. They are extremely well insulated by their feathers that neither the cold nor the Australian heat has much effect on them. If it’s very cold, they can go through small bouts of a type of winter hibernation.

7. They are terrible at building strong nests. No arrangement and nothing to secure in place. Aside from pigeons they are considered Australia’s least accomplished nest builders. Loose sticks are piled together, and leaf litter and grass stems are placed to soften the centre.

8. Both parents share the incubation of the 1-3 eggs during the night, but the males incubate during the day.

Are they owls?

No, they are not. The tawny frogmouth is a big-headed, stocky bird, that is often mistaken for an owl due to its nocturnal habits and similar colouring, but it is part of the nightjar family. Some of the major differences to owls are:

1. Tawny’s prefer to catch their prey with their beaks and have fairly weak feet, whereas owls possess strong legs, powerful talons and toes with a unique flexible joint to catch prey.

2. Tawny’s build their fragile nests in tree forks, whereas owls’ nest in tree hollows.

3. Tawny’s have wide, forward-facing beaks for catching insects, whereas owls have narrow, downwards-facing beaks used to tear prey apart.

4. The eyes of a tawny are to the side of the face, while the eyes of an owl are fully forward on the face.

Capture Info

The photo was taken at our local Coffs Harbour beach car park by Natalia Baechtold

Camera: Panasonic Lumix 5 / Lens: Panasonic 100-400 f4-6.3 / ISO: 200 F-stop: f5.3 Shutter speed: 1/200

Since they are nocturnal animals and are extremely well camouflaged, they are usually hard to find. However, in this case we were blessed with a low-lying nest, built in a tree fork above our local beach car park. Despite the noise of cars and people at the beach and nearby playground, the birds seemed unaffected. We used a ladder to get up at eye level to shoot straight at the birds. The hardest thing when shooting birds is to make sure you don’t blow out the background sky. Even though new cameras are getting better at balancing contrast in extreme lighting conditions (bright sky and shadows in tree), it is important to lock your exposure for the bird and not background. Another key thing is to ensure your focus is set on the animals (and not surrounding leaves). To make sure your key subject (the bird) stands out and the background is blurred, use a small f-stop (Aperture setting). However, if using a small f-stop like f2.8, it is absolutely crucial to make sure the eyes are in focus. If you have multiple subjects that are not in a straight line and you want them all to be in focus, you are better off using a higher f-stop number like f5.6 or f8, to make sure they are all in focus, but your background won’t be as blurred. Try using a couple different f-stops.