g'day all
While working on the plumages (how to sex them etc) of all 3 frogmouths
last year for HANZAB I noticed that in all photos I examined (about 40) the
males do all the incubation by day and possibly by night and the males do
all the brooding by day. Apparently the females brood by night while the
males forage for the family. I only found one recorded of nest builiding by
a bird that I could sex, and that was a female ("Fred" who is pictured in
David Hollands book). Since last year I've seen four nests of Tawny, all
with the male sitting by day and the female close by. One nest had small
chicks, the others either eggs or empty. My experience is that its the norm
for the female to be close by, though maybe in the next tree in Tawnys.
According to one source (I think Schodde & Mason's Nocturnal Birds) female
Marbled Frogmouths roost some distance from the males or nest. Apparently
in Marbled The other thing I have noticed is that most of the frogmouths I
see foraging are males. My samples are small and probably biased but I am
beginning to suspect that males spend a lot more of the night actively
foraging.
cheers,
David James
PO BOX 5225
Townsville Mail Centre 4810
|
