Tawny Frogmouth

Taxobox
name = Tawny Frogmouth
status = lr/LC

---

regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Caprimulgiformes
familia = Podargidae
genus = "Podargus"
species = "P. strigoides"
binomial = "Podargus strigoides"
binomial_authority = (Latham, 1801)

The Tawny Frogmouth, "Podargus strigoides", is an Australian variety of frogmouth, a type of bird found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania and southern New Guinea. The Tawny Frogmouth is often thought to be an owl.

Males and females look alike, and are 35–50 cm long. They have yellow eyes and a wide beak topped with a tuft of bristly feathers. They make loud clacking sounds with their beaks and emit a reverberating booming call.

Owls fly around at night hunting food, but Tawny Frogmouths generally remain sitting very still on a low perch, and wait for food to come to them. They catch prey with their beaks, and sometimes drop from their perch onto the prey on the ground.

Tawny Frogmouths hunt at night and spend the day roosting on a dead log or tree branch close to the tree trunk. Their camouflage is excellent — staying very still and upright, they look just like part of the branch.

The Tawny Frogmouth feeds on rats, mice, cicadas, beetles, frogs and other small prey. They catch their prey with their beaks rather than with their talons, another way in which they are different from owls.

Tawny Frogmouth pairs stay together until one of the pair dies. They breed from August to December. They usually use the same nest each year, and must make repairs to their loose, untidy platforms of sticks. After mating with the male, the female lays two or three eggs onto a lining of green leaves in the nest.

Both male and female take turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them until they hatch about 30 days later. Both parents help feed the chicks.

The chicks move to the edge of the nest and direct their droppings over the edge. About 25 days after hatching, the chicks are ready to leave the nest and lead their own lives.

Phylogeny

The Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus Strigoides) is part of the podargidae, which also includes the other types of frogmouths like the Jaren and Solomon Island Frogmouths. Tawny Frogmouths came from the aves (modern birds) then the neoaves, which has such birds like flamingos, cuckoos and the owls, that continued on to the caprimulgiformes, this is the group that includes the nightjars and oilbirds and then onto the podagidae. The podargidae have been around for about 56 million years, in the econe period. They are mistakenly thought to be very closely related to owns, although they are related, frogmouths are more closely related to nightjars and oilbirds.

Homologous and Analogous Features

A homologous feature of the Tawny Frogmouth is with the owl. While the are both birds and their feet are anisodactylie (meaning that one toe is facing backwards and the other 3 are forwards) the owl’s feet are a lot stronger than the weaker feet of the Tawny Frogmouth. This is because owls use their feet to catch their prey, also when they do catch their prey one of their front toes is able (a unique flexible joint) to swing around to the back, in order to get a better grip on their prey. Owls eat small mammals, like mice and rats, so their bones are shorter and stronger so that they are able to catch the prey easier. Whereas Tawny Frogmouths only really use their feet in order to perch on tree branches, their feet are fairly weak and they use their beak to catch their prey. While they do sometimes eat small mammals like mice, their main food source is insects, and slugs and snails. Another difference to them is that they usually wait for their prey to come to them, instead of hunting like owls. Owls and Tawny Frogmouths share the same common ancestor of the neoves (modern birds).

An analogous feature of the tawny frogmouth is their wings, compared to the wings of an insect, although they are both used for flying, birds and insects are not closely related, as were the Owl and the Tawny Frogmouth. This is evident when we see that insects are derived from Arthropods and birds from Archosaurus, their earliest common ancestor being Bilaterians.

References

* Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
* [http://www.dicoverlife.org Discover Life]
* [http://sparkleberrysprings.com/v-web/b2/images/birdsncats/aves.pngBirds and Cats]
* [http://www.owlpages.com/articles.php?section=Owl+Physiology&title=Talons Owls]
* [http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~simmons/lb1pg1a.htm Introduction to Phylogeny and Classification]
* [http://animals.jrank.org/pages/819/Frogmouths-Podargidae-TAWNY-FROGMOUTH-Podargus-strigoides-SPECIES-ACCOUNT.html Tawny Frogmouth]

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=2333&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet]
* [http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/tawny_frogmouth.htm Australian museum online]
* [http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Birds/Index/default.cfm?id=725 Smithsonian National Zoological Park]
* [http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/backyard_buddies_tawny_frogmouth National Parks and Wildlife Service]
* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=2759 Tawny Frogmouth videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8599935583165706034&hl=en Tawny Frogmouth videos] on Google Video
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW-sN6mhnLw&mode=user&search= Tawny Frogmouth videos] on YouTube