Tawny Frogmouth for my GBS

[Duncan McCaskill <>]

I don't think Frogmouths are always very choosy about their roosting sites. Maybe its because they pick them in the dark.

The top two photos below show a couple of frogmouths in a small leafless deciduous tree in a suburban backyard in the Adelaide hills. Only the one on the right tried the cryptic pose, and when it did the other one sidled over to it and gave it a shove, as if to tell it to stop being so silly. They may have been young ones. A pair of frogmouths had successfully bred in the area the year before. There were plenty of large eucalypts to choose from, but choose this site, less than 2m above the ground.

The bottom left photo show ones in a large casurina at Casurina Sands, near where the pair had a nest with young. And another in a small eucalypt showing that you can't be inconspicuous if you have an itch that demands attention.

Duncan.

On 2 June 2012 08:10, martin butterfield <> wrote:

The pair of frogmouths which I have been observing in my GBS site for the past 5 years usually roost in the axil of a fair sized branch of one of several eucalypts (E meliodora or E macrorhyncha).  These positions are mostly clear of foliage (and on occasion will be in a dead tree - E polyanthemos).  Occasionally (perhaps 1% of days) they will take up position in sites well covered in eucalypt leaves. 

The only roost site similar to that described has been in a near-dead, and thus leafless, twisted hazel tree.  That has only been used by the female when the male has been brooding eggs or chicks in the nest almost directly above the female's position. In short, I agree that it is an unusual roost site.

Martin

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:29 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:

My neighbour (the same whose garden hosted the White-fronted Honeyeater in 2007) phoned me to say that a Tawny Frogmouth had been roosting in his back yard over the past week. I can only guess likely to be the same one. I went to have a look at it. He says it is very tame. It was roosting adjacent to the house in a leafless deciduous tree. I don't recall having seen them roost in a tree like that before.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----From: Philip Veerman [ Sent: Friday, 25 May 2012 9:39 PM      To: ''
Subject: Tawny Frogmouth for my GBS

I just drove into my yard and whilst I would normally go in backwards this time forwards and lucky to flush a Tawny Frogmouth sitting on the side fence. It then flew and then perched on the top of my Hills Hoist, very easy to see. I only recall one prior sighting of one of them at my GBS site, though that was years ago and a daytime roosting. Not important but a nice thing on a dull day.

 

Philip Veerman

24 Castley Circuit

Kambah  ACT  2902

 

02 - 62314041