Tawny frogmouth

At night, the frogmouth sits on a branch and watches.

Then it swoops down and catches bugs, spiders and frogs.

A tawny frogmouth is a sit-and-wait hunter. At dusk and at night it watches from a branch, fence post or low perch, then glides silently down to snatch prey from the ground with its wide beak. It can also catch insects in the air or pick them off branches.

It eats mostly large insects such as moths, beetles and cockroaches, plus spiders, scorpions, centipedes and frogs. Now and then it catches a snail, a lizard, a mouse or a small bird.

The SDZWA fact sheet describes a sit-and-wait but versatile predator that catches insects in mid-air, gleans prey from branches and forages on the ground, takes large prey to a perch, and uses only its bill, not its feet, to handle prey, the bill being efficient at crushing it. Common prey are large insects (cockroaches, beetles, moths), scorpions, spiders, centipedes and frogs; occasional prey include earthworms, snails, slugs, crustaceans, millipedes, lizards, small birds and small mammals.

Centennial Parklands in Sydney describes the bird gliding silently down from branches, fence posts or low perches to take ground-dwelling prey; Toronto Zoo calls large moths a favorite.

At night, frogmouths call oom-oom-oom.

A mother and father frogmouth often sit close together.

Tawny frogmouths are most active at dusk and at night. In the dark you may hear their low, pulsing call, oom-oom-oom, which can be hard to track down. In the breeding season, males and females call together in duets.

Mates have a strong bond. They roost near each other and lean against each other, and the male often grooms his mate's feathers.

The SDZWA fact sheet notes that tawny frogmouths alternate short periods (about 2 hours) of sleep and wakefulness and are usually called nocturnal because they are more active at night, feeding mostly at twilight and at night, though more research is needed. Calls are soft, low oom-oom-oom notes, given often and as male-female duets in the breeding season; distress and warning calls are loud and high-pitched.

Pair bonds are reinforced by grooming (mainly by the male), mouth gaping, leaning against each other and roosting close together. Centennial Parklands describes the call as resonant in the dark and hard to locate.

There are lots of tawny frogmouths.

They often live near people. Cars and cats can be a danger for them.

The tawny frogmouth is listed as least concern. It is generally common across Australia, and its numbers seem steady. It is protected by Australian law.

Living near people brings some dangers. Frogmouths can be hit by cars as they swoop toward the ground after prey, and they can be harmed when they eat insects or snails poisoned by pesticides. Feral cats and foxes also catch them, and they lose homes where trees are cut down.

BirdLife International assessed Podargus strigoides as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 15 January 2024, published 2024): an extremely large range, an unquantified but generally common population (del Hoyo et al. 1999) suspected to be stable, and a national reassessment for the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 that found no threatened status. Generation length is 6.23 years; trade was recorded at low prevalence, in one of seven datasets (Donald et al. 2024).

The SDZWA fact sheet notes local declines, protection under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and threats including clearing of trees, loss of insect food, indirect poisoning by pesticides, vehicle strikes while chasing prey, and feral cats and introduced foxes.