Steve,
Apart from the yellow eyes, bird No 2 is a fairly typical Papuan
Frogmouth overall - shape, big in size, big headed, big billed. I
wouldn't place too much emphasis on the short tail. I have a number of
photos of Papuans with a shortish tail which could be attributable to
moult or some other factor. Eye colour is generally always red in Papuan
though I have seen a couple of definite Papuans over the years from the
Julatten-Mt Molloy area with quite yellow eyes similar to your bird.
Hanzab also records a male with "yellow-orange" eyes.
It is very rare to see any frogmouth flying by day without being flushed
but I would doubt that your bird saw the Golden-shouldered Parrots as
prey. Papuan Frogmouths generally start breeding from about August-early
September in these areas and my guess would be that it had a nest very
close by and that bird was the male defending his patch. If any of the
three frogmouths was going to do that by day, only Papuan would I am
sure. Marbled and Tawny always seem fairly placid but Papuan can be a
bit more aggressive.
Birds 3 and 4 are the very small tropical race phalanoides of Tawny
which inhabit Cape York Peninsula, the Wet Tropics etc. I think you have
to get down to Townsville before you get the larger strigoides. The size
difference between the two races is quite remarkable.
Lloyd Nielsen
Mt Molloy, Nth Qld
www.birdingaustralia.com.au
My brother and I have just returned from a trip to Cape York where we saw
all the frogmouths. Some of the birds we saw gave rise to a few questions
due to disparity in size, plumage patterns etc, so I have got together a
small gallery to invite some expert comment. There are four birds involved:
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