Frogmouths in the sun

A Tawny Frogmouth basks in sunshine

Ever wondered what tawny Frogmouths do when we aren't watching, and they don't adopt their broken branch pose? Following on from the previous post, I thought I should add some images of how frogmouths hold themselves when not in alarm, as usually seen by humans.

Typically, they sit on the sunny side of trees where they can bask in the sun. Frogmouths can go into torpor during the day when they are not active and exposure to maximum sunshine, especially in winter, helps them thermoregulate. When sitting in the sun, they hold their breast up towards and face onto the sun. And they tilt their head back and fluff out their feathers, which are held tight against the body when in branch-pose.

Well shaded eyes

Frogmouths don't hunt by day and they hold their eyes closed when their head is angled towards the sun or when approached. But at other times when they are looking around, generally watching, their eyes are well shielded from the sunshine by thickly feathered eyebrows. As their eyes are likely better tuned to night vision, this probably aids their daylight vision, by shading them from bright direct light.

Quite frequently, they will bend their head right back and over a shoulder, spreading the feathers on their neck and breast wide open. This seems to be to allow maximum sunlight or heat reach their skin. In the photograph below, the bird has tipped her head to her left and her bill tip and nasal bristles can only just be seen protruding from the fluffed up plumage.

Maximised sun basking

A close call

A Tawny Frogmouth sits on its nest, hiding from me, not the Crimson Rosella 

Tawny Frogmouths are well known to adopt a branch-pose to hide from potential predators, as they usually do when approached by a human. So it was illuminating to watch what they do when an animal predator approaches them.

Yesterday, this bird was unconcerned when a Crimson Rosella landed on its nest branch, but quickly slipped into the angled pose as I drew nearer. Then while I was looking for the female roosting a few trees away, she began to call in a low oom oom. This is most unusual as they do not normally call at all when approached. And then she started to fidget, leaving her branch-pose and shifting along her perch. Her eyes were wide open, they keep them closed when approached as part of their concealment, and I was wondering what was up, when I heard a cawing back beside the nest.

The female frogmouth in alarm

Two Australian Ravens were hopping about in the tree next to the nest, staring at the bird on the nest, which was back in a branch-pose. She had obviously seen them approach the nest well before me and was anxous as to what to do. For frogmouths are loath to fly in daylight, yet she seemed to want to help chase off the ravens from her nest.

Two Australian Ravens investigated the frogmouth on the nest

The male by then had his hackles partly raised, and his bill was slightly open. I suspect that he might have been giving a low hissing call as the ravens drew closer. I am sure they had identified him as a bird on a nest, but perhaps his partial threat display was enough to make them unsure. We can't tell, but they flew away to join the rest of the roving flock which they were part of. Hopefully not to return. 

Fortunately they flew away

Fledging Frogmouths

A Tawny Frogmouth fledgling basks in the sun

The first Tawny Frogmouths fledged at the weekend, with one chick leaving the nest a day before its siblings, which left the next day. So, a brood of three from the earliest nesting attempt of the year, by the same pair which laid earliest last year and reared three chicks then too.

Meanwhile its dad continues to brood two chicks in the nest on the next branch

The female was sitting low in a branch and was most un-noticeable. Then once they had all fledged the whole family moved into an adjacent tree. They will continue to move around their home range from now on, roosting in a different spot most days.

 

And mum watches on in-obtrusively

Yellow-faced Honeyeater - a banding control

Yellow-faced Honeyeater : 026-11399

When I was out helping Richard Allen and others mist-netting birds for banding  a week or so ago at the Weddin Mountains in New south Wales, we caught a Yellow-faced Honeyeater Lichenostomus chrysops which had been banded previously elsewhere. We now have the information on where that was. The bird was banded and identified as a first year (1) female in 2011, in the Warraderry State Forest. So it is now a three-year old (3) and has moved 29 km from the initial banding site.  

We use the shape of the alula tip as an aging guide, and we had already designated the bird as an adult (1+) on the basis that it had a pointed alula. Young birds have rounded tips on their alulae.

This is only the 18th record of a banded Yellow-faced Honeyeater moving over twenty kilometres, although for a widespread and abundant breeding bird of south-east Australia, which is known for its spectacular north-eastern orientated migration flocks, little is known on how far they migrate other than birds winter in eastern Queensland. Some birds also spend the winter in the south east, so which birds travel and where. As there are so few records from banding, perhaps attaching tracking devices to some birds would help answer this question. This is a common species yet we do not know its full life story. If a suitable system could be developed, the methods could be adapted to address similar questions on endangered species. For it is important to know where rare birds migrate, or even move locally, in order to conserve their habitat requirements in all parts of their range. Work of this type is well established in other countries and is providing enlightening results.

The bird had moved between two large areas of forest,  with a large area of farmland separating the sites 

Thanks to Richard Allen for organising the banding trip, Graham Fry for first banding the bird and David Drynan of the Australian Bird & Bat Banding  Scheme for the speedy interpretation and return of the data.

Possums on the roof

A very large youngster - soon to be made to walk and climb on its own 

There were footsteps on the roof last night and then someone scratching at the dining room window. It was our local possum, a Common Brushtail Possum  Trichosurus vulpecula, checking out the food tray we put out for the birds during the day. She had a joey on her back as she scrabbled up and down the drainpipe. It was well-grown, about six months old and ready to be, if not already, weaned. Certainly quite a load on her back if she has do a lot of climbing. The youngster should be off and walking, climbing on its own any time soon, but will still be dependent for perhaps another year before it is cast out of the home range.

Mum raids the birds' food tray

As there was nothing left in the feeding tray we put out a slice of bread and raspberry jam. Mum sniffed it from the roof and came straight down for it. Snatched it, and climbed back onto the roof to eat it. meanwhile the joey had to climb up on its own, perhaps for the first time. It wasn't very agile on the overhang moves. But they won't take long to master.

A special treat of jam on bread -only the best organic for them