The Tawny Frogmouth is an enigmatic bird of the night, difficult to find in daytime, typically well camouflaged amongst the branches of a tree, imitating a broken tree branch or loose piece of bark. There are three species of Frogmouth in Australia, the Tawny Frogmouth (50 cm) seen Australia wide, the huge Papuan Frogmouth (60 cm) seen in Cape York and the Marbled Frogmouth (46 cm) seen in the very north and the south east corner of Queensland.
This female Tawny Frogmouth is roosting close to the nest where her partner sits with two young chicks, not far from Sydney’s busy Oxford street in Centennial Park.
Frogmouths eat insects, spiders and frogs and even small birds and mammals. They tend to nest in the same area over a number of years. In Sydney’s Centennial Park there are three pairs nesting at the moment.
The male bird supervises the two restless chicks. Tawny Frogmouth nests are flimsy and look quite precarious as the chicks get larger. This pair have chosen a medium sized Malaleuca tree for their nest.
Another family of Tawny Frogmouths in Sydney’s Centennial Park. The chicks are older and have left their nest.
This Tawny Frogmouth nest is anchored by a single pine cone, wedged between two branches of a pine tree.