Critter Sitter's Blog: Frogmouth Birds

I was looking through a large, new library book last night when I saw an entry about frogmouth birds. I had never heard the term before, so I started reading and looking at photos of them. The bird that they are most closely related to is the nightjar, which I know from many areas in the United States. The pennant-winged nightjar is pictured below.

Frogmouth birds are nocturnal, like the nightjar. They may be seen from the subcontinent of India, across southeast Asia, and down to Australia. They received their name from their large, flattened hooked bill, and a huge frog-like mouth gape, which they use to capture insects. They are weak flyers. Frogmouths rest, usually horizontally, on branches during the day and are camoflaged by their plumage.

The three Podargus species are large (including the Australian tawny frogmouth) are restricted to Australia and new Guinea. They have massive flat broad bills, and are known for taking small vertebrates (frogs, mice, etc.) besides insects. Ten types of Batrachostomus frogmouths are found in tropical Asia. They have smaller, more rounded bills and are primarily insectivorous. Both types of frogmouths have bristles growing at the base of their bills. The Asian birds has more, and longer, bristles, which may exist to protect their eyes from the insects they eat. In April 2007, a new species of frogmouth was described from the Solomon Islands (discovered by a team from the University of Florida) and was placed in a newly established genus, Rigidipenna.