Tawny Frogmouth
Well the Tawny Frogmouth won this year’s vote for Australia’s bird of the year, and I laughed at this image. The ugliest bird in Australia in such glamorous crowns. A bit like the bird version of Grumpy Cat.
I think that’s one reason why the Tawny Frogmouth won, and partly why people love them so much — their brilliant camouflage and their endearingly ugly appearance, with their scruffy-looking feathers, their wide frog-like mouth and their bright golden eyes. I love that they won against prettier birds.
They are also gentle birds, who mate for life and who raise their chicks together. I often saw a Tawny Frogmouth family near my old house — mother, father and chick in between, sitting placidly on a high branch of a gum tree. They can sit still for hours, just watching. They are also very useful birds as they hunt insects, mice, slugs, snails and other pests.
Their call is soft and hearing it, you might not realize it’s a bird.
Adorable. Nice to see that Australia is home to something that isn’t beautiful and deadly…. unless you’re a slug.
Heh heh, Marianne. Honestly the media beat-ups about the dangerous critters we have here are pretty over the top. Most people never see a dangerous snake from one year to another — but when they do, it’s a headline. And it’s mainly where houses border areas of natural bush. Spiders? I see big harmless but scary-looking huntsmen all the time, but I’ve only seen redbacks once or twice, and they were in areas where spiders could be expected to hang out — woodsheds, etc. I saw a funnelweb spider hole once when I was a child — and my mum… Read more »
That is a very unique bird call….thanks for posting a link for it. And yes, the birds are adorably ugly. Grin.