Tawny Frogmouth

Australian Tawny Frogmouth is a species of owls, native to Australia's bushland. But the frogmouth has much wider beaks (at the base of the beaks where they join the face – like the mouth of frog --thus the name ‘frogmouth’). Like owls, tawny frogmouths hunt at night for moths and small animals (mice, rats, birds, lizards and insects), and sleep up on tall trees during the day. So they are not seen very often.  

These three (3) frogmouths were first spotted some years ago and several more times after that. Always spotted as ‘trio’ so we call them ‘ the three musketeers ’.  They were spotted this year (2024) after a prolonged dry period of some 7 months last year, when the bush was badly affected (all grasses and ground-covers turned brown and died, many big trees dropped all leaves, our dams were down to 0 or 15% capacity, meaning no foods nor water for wildlife --hunters or preys; we were preparing for bush fires and trucking water in). It is good to see the three musketeers survive this really bad time.

[More good news is that after some 200mm of rains we have from around Christmas to now has refilled our dams, added green grass back and trees sprouted new leaves again. Life is getting up! ]

The relationships among the three musketeers are unknown. Judging from their sizes (roughly equal), they could be siblings (brothers and sisters of the same brood - hatched out from the same clutch of eggs). Because, parent owls only raise (care for) their chicks to full feathers , flying and hunting by themselves, then the young owls would be forced out to find their own hunting grounds – elsewhere. Not enough is known about sharing territory among siblings.  

Look around you. Perhaps you can find interesting wildlife or phenomena and questions that may drive you to better understanding of yourselves or the the world around you. A path to a PhD?  

[Edited 13/1/2567 to correct typos.]