Question about Tawny Frogmouths

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Thanks for your comments Martin, although I will say I am a bit confused at what we are discussing. I wonder if (and at this stage assume that) you typed the word "night" by accident and actually meant day. My comments were in response to Trish's question about the birds' roost site fidelity. Which naturally I took to be the daytime roost (as confirmed by the photo). I am not sure but thought from the tone of her enquiry that Trish may think there is something wrong with the birds and may not have been aware that they are nocturnal. What I meant is that they move every night, as being nocturnal hunters they need to fly around then. It is day when they are not active and would be roosting. I don't have Gisela Kaplan's book on the species or indeed any of her books. Unfortunately uncomplimentary reviews and a perception from having heard her of overstating several things have put me off and I have enough books for the next 3 lifetimes anyway. I would not know if or why her book would say they rarely use the same roost for more than 4 nights in a row. If this refers to perches to hunt from, then that would take a huge amount of night time research to work out. As surely they don't use a night roost at all. If it means they rarely use the same roost for more than 4 days in a row I would understand that, although it would surprise me a bit. I thought they are more site faithful than that but then I have never had an opportunity to keep track of any individual. Trish's mention that They haven’t moved now for over two months – same tree, same branch as telling us they have moved but returned to the same site each morning, is more towards what I would have guessed is more typical.

 

Philip

 

 

-----Original Message-----From: martin butterfield [ Sent: Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:29 AM
To: Philip Veerman     Cc: Trish Fletcher;
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Question about Tawny Frogmouths

The
roost-fidelity of frogmouths is an interesting question.  In Gisela 
Kaplan's book on the species she comments that they rarely use the same roost
for more than 4 nights in a row.  With the pair that I follow in Carwoola
they have sometimes used the same roost tree for 6 or 7 nights before moving off
to another.  Over the 4 years I have been following them they have used 15
different trees as daytime roosts: Some roosts have only been used once or twice
but at least 6 have been used regularly.  Usually the pair snuggle together
but occasionally (as today) they might use different trees, up to 100m
apart.

They do tend to be faithful to a nest tree.  'My' pair have
used exactly the same site for 3 years in a row and should start work on 
refurbishing the nest in the next 3 or 4 weeks.  When the nest is active
the male will spend all day on it with the female in the general area.  I'd
suggest Trish's friend might be able to locate the nest in September when they
are likely to be brooding.

Martin

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

Hello Trish,

 

It may be a case of curious wording, but I can tell you with certainty, that if they are alive, unless someone is hand feeding them, they certainly would have moved every night. Maybe you are not aware that they are nocturnal. (They are not owls.) So you are seeing them in the daytime, when they return to their roost. It is fairly normal for them to be faithful to a particular roost tree. Each night they will be out hunting in the vicinity and return to their roost tree before dawn.

 

The darker one is the male and the more brown one is the female.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Trish Fletcher [
Sent: Thursday, 16 June 2011 11:59 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Question about Tawny Frogmouths

Hello Everyone,

 

I live in Cook. A friend who also lives in Cook ( Booth Crescent) has two Tawneys snuggled up together in a tree in her front yard.  They haven’t moved now for over two months – same tree, same branch. They’ve sat through neighbourhood noise, cars and people coming and going from the house, two young children playing under the tree, etc. A few weeks ago a branch near them cracked and fell, but they still didn’t move.

 

I’m hoping someone may be able to explain what is going on with them.

 

Any information or even just an educated guess would be very much appreciated to help ease our burning curiosity!

 

Many thanks,

Trish Fletcher

 

It is hard to see from this photo, but one seems to have more brown around it’s face and the other slightly blacker...?