Tawny Frogmouth
Tawny Frogmouth
We have two Tawny Frogmouths that sleep in a big
gum tree behind our house. At one time
they were nearly always there on the same branch, then it fell down and they
moved away for a while. Now they are back again in the same tree. They can be
very hard to spot, as they blend in well with the bark. Sometimes at night we
can hear them calling. The sound is deep and rhythmic sort of woooo woooo woooo.
The
first time we heard it we thought it was a frog or an alarm of some electric
thing like a phone! Then we went outside and eventually spied him in a tree (at
first we were looking on the ground for a frog). We watched it. Then we all glanced
away for some reason, when we turned again and he was gone! Not a sound not a stirring!
He just disappeared into thin air.
The
two Tawny Frogmouths are probably a pair and will stay together till one of
them dies. They can live to be 12-14 years old. Unlike owls they catch food
using their beaks not talons and wait sitting on a tree branch for their food to
appear, instead of flying around looking for it. Considering they haven’t all
died that must work, so really they are pretty smart birds. Mostly they eat
insects (especially moths) and other crawly things like spiders, centipedes and
sometimes frogs.
Cool
fact: The tawny frogmouth is not actually an owl but classified with kookaburras
and kingfishers.
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