Tawny Frogmouth

No, though it is very easy to mistake for one. It is nocturnal, has forward-set eyes and camouflaged grey-brown plumage, and roosts upright in trees, all owl-like traits. But it belongs to a separate group, the frogmouths, whose closest relatives are the nightjars and, more distantly, the swifts and hummingbirds. The differences are practical — an owl has powerful feet with hooked talons and kills by grabbing, and it flies almost silently to snatch prey on the wing. A tawny frogmouth has small, weak feet and a broad, flat, hooked bill, and it hunts by sitting motionless and pouncing on prey it spots on the ground or on a branch, then carrying it back in the bill. Its flight is not specially silenced.

Its whole daytime survival strategy is to not be seen. The plumage is a finely streaked and blotched mix of silver-grey, brown, black, and white that closely matches weathered eucalypt bark. When a frogmouth detects a threat during the day it does not fly; instead it slowly stretches its body stiff and vertical, compresses its feathers, tips its head and bill straight up, and closes its eyes to slits. In that pose the bird's silhouette becomes a jagged broken-off branch, and it will hold completely still even as a person or a predator approaches within a metre. A roosting pair often lines up along the same limb to reinforce the illusion.

The usual call is a soft, low, continuous "oom-oom-oom" churring, repeated for long stretches on still nights, often given by both members of a pair. It is surprisingly quiet and far-carrying at the same time, and people frequently mistake it for a distant engine or a pigeon. Frogmouths also make a loud hissing or buzzing alarm, and clack or snap the bill when threatened at the nest. The old name "mopoke" (or "morepork") is confusingly also applied to the southern boobook, a small owl with a distinct two-note call; the two birds are often mixed up in Australian folklore.

They are exposed to it, and it is a recognised conservation concern even though the species is currently common. Tawny frogmouths regularly eat mice, rats, and large invertebrates around houses and farms, and when those animals have fed on anticoagulant rodenticide (rat bait) the poison is passed on to the bird. Second-generation baits in particular build up in the frogmouth's body and can cause fatal internal bleeding, or leave the bird weak and more likely to be hit by a car. Rescue and wildlife hospitals in Australian cities report frogmouths as one of the birds most often admitted with rodenticide poisoning, alongside road-trauma cases. Using traps or first-generation baits, and keeping baits enclosed, reduces the risk.