Cocky the Pink and Grey Gala

This photograph was taken of an adult tawny frogmouth while recovering from an injury.

As a lot of my observations are done at night in the bush I often find flying around the trees, Tawny Frogmouths, well I should say, they often find me!

Whether I be walking or driving I have frequently been visited by a curious Tawny. I suppose I should tell you what a Tawny Frogmouth is. A Tawny frogmouth belongs to the nightjar family. It is nocturnal. As with all nightjars Tawny's don't have the ability to lock their claws into their prey when they hunt. There legs are weak compared to the owl.

They prefer to catch insects with their beaks or sit on a branch and open their mouth wide to allow moths to fly in. Why would a moth be so stupid as to fly in you might ask? Because the inside of the Tawny's mouth is an off-white colour and its tongue area is red when it sits there with its mouth open it looks like a large white flower which reflects the moonlight. Hence the moth flies in.

This is what they look like when they are babies. Aren't they cute! These two were brought in to be hand reared as they had been separated from their parents. The only gross side is that they can't eat a whole dead mouse at this age so the dead mouse has to be cut into bite sized pieces.

Can you see the tail hanging out of the mouth on the left! All the parts of the mouse are eaten and what isn't needed comes out in the pellet coughed up by the bird.

Here are the places and photos where tawny's have found me;
I have been visited many times by a tawny frogmouth while driving slowly around at Dryandra woodlands near Narrogin South East of Perth which is a wandoo tree forest. While driving slowly at night in the Mundaring area just east of Perth which is a mixture of jarrah, marri and wandoo trees.

We also had a tawny fly ahead of us on the dirt road at the Blackwood river near Sue's Bridge.

Click on the photograph to make it larger. This one came and landed on a branch in front of me several times while I was doing a quite walk around Neerubup National Park north of Joondalup on Wanneroo Rd, which is mostly Banksia trees. I would much rather have the company of the tawny's than all those spiders that build their webs across the tracks.

At Tuart Forest in Busselton in the South West, where it was mainly peppermint and tuart trees, we had a tawny come right up to us on a lower branch while I did a night walk with two kids chatting away. This tawny even appeared to call us with a sort of bark or cough, maybe to get our attention or to turn the lights towards it. This is the only time I have heard a tawny make a calling sound. It stayed while the kids pointed and talked excitedly about it but would not tolerate them getting closer for a photograph.

The only common denominator with all these encounters is that I was going slowly by foot or vehicle and that I had a torch or headlights, it seemed to make no difference if we were quite or with kids and being noisy.

They usually let me get around the 10metre mark and none of them tried to hide the fact that they were there. Even though at times I have offered the lights and kept them nice and still, with no noise, none of the tawny's have attempted to catch the moths flying around while we have been watching. (We have had other nightjars and an owl use the car headlights for catching insects while driving slowly). I have always only seen one tawny at each place and not a pair.

Click on the Photograph to see it larger.

I think these birds are gorgeous and have a different personality than maybe what their appearance might suggest. They have never been aggressive in captivity. They would sometimes give a hiss when changing the paper in their cage but never attempted to bite.

When they first come into care they are shy and nervous but after a while they gain trust and can be hand fed as I have done in this photograph here. (Can you see the tail hanging out of the mouth?). These birds pair for life and both help to raise the young. They are found over most of Australia and are fairly common.

It just goes to show that not everything that looks scary - is scary.

Update: In April 2004 I went out to Mt Dale in the Darling Range Perth to release this Tawny Frogmouth that I had helped back to health. It was a successful release and I went for a slow drive around before going home.

This ended up being the most amazing Tawny frogmouth night I have ever had, it was like all the tawny's had come out on the one night and they all happened to be in front of me on the dirt roads. I saw a total of 12 Tawny's. The first was 27mins after starting my drive, the next at 50mins, the 3rd at 1:12m and I got within 11/2 metres of it, the 4th at 1:27m which was eating off the road, the 5th at 1:32 on the road, the 6th at 1:44 and I could have touched this one I got so close, the 7th at 1:47 on the road at I got within 2metres, the 8th 1:50 on the road, the 9th 1:52 and it was flying, 10th at 1:54 on the road, the 11th at 1:57 flew off the road, and the 12th at 1:59 which also flew off the road.

The only thing that I could put it down to is that there were a lot of black beetles on the road that night.

I visited back here in September and I saw two Tawny's and in November I saw one.

Update; I have had the company of another Tawny Frogmouth in a National Park in the Mundaring area on Helena Rd Perth. This Tawny found me in record breaking time of 19 minutes from starting my car after nightfall. It didn't hesitated to just fly ahead of me and this one used my headlights to pick up something off the side of the road.
And in late February at the Monadnocks Nature Reserve off Albany Hwy a tawny followed along for approximately 10minutes. This is a Jarrah and Marri tree area.

Update: Leaving the picnic rock area in April at Boyagin Rock in the wheatbelt I came across this gorgeous tawny frogmouth sitting on the fence post. I don't know if I found it or it found me. I often have tawny frogmouths accompanying me on my adventures at night. We found each other in only 12 minutes from leaving the car park. I left the car running with the headlights on and slipped out of the car hoping to get a photograph. I crept along the roadside closer and closer and could not believe my luck by getting less than 1/2 metre from it. It was like it was in a daze but its eyes were open. Suddenly it recognised that I was standing there and flew off into the woodlands.

This Tawny was seen at Boyagin Rock Nature Reserve in November.

Update: Driving again at Dryandra Woodlands I had the company of a Tawny for a short time and then later on the way up York Williams Rd I spotted this Tawny. I stopped the car but left the motor running and walked straight up to the Tawny that was perching on a low branch. I came within 30cm and could have touched it! Go to our Tracks, Scats and Bones pages to see more about this bird.

Update; In November while driving slowly around Lane Poole near Dwellingup we saw a Tawny frogmouth eating these large centipedes.