Incredible detail in photographer’s unusual tawny frogmouth pictures on side of Aussie road
When they go into camouflage mode tawny frogmouths are hard to spot, but they can sense exactly where you are.
The remarkable defensive skill of a famous Aussie bird has been captured by a passing motorist. Initially unaware of her presence, the family of tawny frogmouths stared wide-eyed towards the camera, but as soon as the car door was opened they appeared to vanish.
“They were down almost on the ground, which is unusual. Normally they’re up in a tree,” Lyn Alcock told Yahoo News after returning from a trip through Dryandra Woodlands National Park, near Perth.
“I stepped out of the car just thinking, maybe I'll get one or two steps a little bit closer to them, and they immediately narrowed their eyes and lengthened themselves out to make themselves less visible.”
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Hidden detail in tawny frogmouth photograph
Gisela Kaplan AM is an emeritus professor at the University of New England, and having written the CSIRO’s book on tawny frogmouths, she’s considered the world’s foremost expert on the species.
Speaking with Yahoo News, she explained that tawnys prefer not to be discovered because unlike owls which catch prey with their talons and have strong beaks, they don’t have many fighting skills.
“Camoflague is their number one protection,” she said.
Look closely at the photo and you'll notice tawny frogmouths don't completely shut their eyes when they go into camouflage mode. Kaplan explained, "They’ll keep their eye open, just open a slit so they can observe what’s around them and if they're going to be in danger."
Their favourite trees for camouflage are eucalypts, paperbarks, and peppermint trees because they best resemble the patternation of their feathers. When it comes to nesting they need old native trees with large horizontal branches, an attribute that’s becoming increasingly hard to find because so many have been cut down.
“Old trees are so very important. They’re not really nest builders, they’ll fuss around for a few weeks and really just put together a few sticks and leaves. When they shuffle about after the little ones have hatched the nest will fall to the ground. And the branch has to be wide enough so the little ones don’t fall down,” Kaplan said.
“That's why we need native trees. The European trees all grow branches that grow in a very sharp angle upwards. But the Australian natives, particularly eucalypts, go sideways.”
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