Birding

A Tawny Frogmouth family

March 7, 2021 by Clare M 6 Comments

I won’t apologise for doing another post about Tawny Frogmouths, because they are just such beautiful birds! You will notice that it is a year ago that I wrote about the family of Tawny Frogmouths at Cygnet park in Broome. Once again there is a family there, but we don’t know if it is the same pair. It quite possibly is. This year they have two young, though. We had observed Tawny Frogmouth feathers in the park on our daily walks with the neighbours Pug. Then the family of Tawny Frogmouths appeared in the same tree as last year for their day time roost this week.

The juvenile Tawny Frogmouth with its parents was very alert and watched us below. It wasn’t going to fall off the branch by the way the adults had it squeezed in!

Tawny Frogmouth family

Initially we observed the family of three, but then realised that there was one other juvenile Tawny Frogmouth on another branch. It was not squeezed into the corner like the one next to its parents. It had perfected the shape to appear to be part of the tree!

Tawny Frogmouth juvenile

It will be interesting to see if the Tawny Frogmouths continue to use this park for years to come. There are some good trees in it and plentiful food provided by the streetlights nearby. We certainly hope so!

Written by Clare M
Clare and her husband, Grant, have lived permanently in Broome, Western Australia since 1999 after living in various outback locations around Western Australia and Darwin. She has lived in the Middle East and the United States and traveled extensively in Europe. She monitors Pied Oystercatchers breeding along a 23km stretch of Broome's coastline by bicycle and on foot. She chooses not to participate in social media, but rather wander off into the bush for peace and tranquility. Thankfully she can write posts in advance and get away from technology!