Hello all.
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:
Bird 1: This is a Marbled Frogmouth. The identity was not in question
because it was seen calling and also displays the key features: white brow,
marbled patterns, small size, barred flight feathers and barred plumes. It
is included for comparison.
Bird 2: This was an interesting bird. It made a dramatic appearance while we
were quietly watching a group of Golden-shouldered parrots at about 09:00 in
woodland just south of Musgrave. It came from behind (so not flushed by us),
swooped low over the parrots (scattering them in all directions) as if it
was trying to grab one, and ascended into a tree, where it remained for a
while before flying off. It was very large, and I originally thought it was
a Papuan Frogmouth, but it has yellow eyes, and a short tail..so presumably
a Tawny.
Bird 3: This one was spotted by my brother shortly after we left bird 2, in
the same area. It is a much smaller bird than 2. Not much bigger than bird
1, and much more patterned than 2.
Bird 3: Female mate of bird 2 and very tiny. This bird could not have been
much more than half the size of bird 2. I know estimating size can be
tricky, but these were my impressions.
So my questions are: Has anybody ever seen a Tawny Frogmouth
flying around in broad daylight preying on other birds? And, if birds 2, 3
and 4 are all Tawnys why are they so different, and could there be different
subspecies in the same area (eg, phalanoides and strigoides)?
The images are here http://www.pbase.com/sjmurray/recent_images Any comments
would be welcome.
Cheers Steve Murray
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