Tawny frogmouths are masters at hiding in plain sight. These lovely native birds are nocturnal, spending the night hunting insects and other invertebrates – and when daylight comes they roost out in the open on dead branches, often huddled
together, using the tricks of what biologists call “cryptic camouflage” to avoid being seen by predators. Their plumage blends perfectly into the bark, and the birds mimic a broken, jagged tree limb by stretching their bodies upright, pointing their wide beaks
upwards and closing their eyes, remaining motionless in this so-called “stick pose” for hours on end.
This image of three juvenile tawny frogmouths – winner of the Behaviour category in the
international Bird Photographer of the Year awards – was captured early one morning at Perth’s Herdsman Lake by Donald Chin. The 58-year-old migrated from Malaysia with his wife and three young children in
2007, looking for a better life, and he spent years building and running his own business, the Papa Don’s pizza chain. It was a life of “work, work, work,” Chin says, but happily he sold the business two years ago and in retirement he’s giving full rein to
his passions for travel and bird photography. “I really love capturing bird behaviour,” he says.
It had just started to rain on that morning at Herdsman Lake, and it looks like the young bird on the left has extended a wing over its siblings to keep them dry, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s nothing like that: Chin happened to raise his camera
just as it snapped out of its stick pose to yawn and stretch, staring intently at him with those piercing eyes. “It only lasted a second or two,” he says. A case of now you see us, now you don’t…
