Frogmouth
Encyclopedia
The frogmouths are a group of nocturnal bird
s related to the nightjar
s. They are found from India
across southern Asia
to Australia
.
They are named for their large flattened hooked bills and huge frog-like gape
, which they use to capture insects. Their flight is weak.
They rest horizontally on branches during the day, camouflaged by their cryptic plumage. Up to three white eggs are laid in the fork of a branch, and are incubated by the female at night and the male in the day.
The three Podargus species are large frogmouths restricted to Australia and New Guinea
, and have massive flat broad bills. They are known to take larger prey such as small vertebrates (frogs, mice, etc.), which are sometimes beaten against a stone before swallowing. The twelve Batrachostomus frogmouths are found in tropical Asia. They have smaller, more rounded bills and are predominantly insectivorous. Both Podargus and Batrachostomus have bristles around the base of the bill, and Batrachostomus has other, longer bristles which may exist to protect the eyes from insect prey. In April 2007, a new species of frogmouth was described from the Solomon Islands
and placed in a newly established genus, Rigidipenna.
Recent research suggests that the two frogmouth groups may not be as closely related as previously thought, and that the Asian species may be separable as a new family, the Batrachostomidae. Usually placed in the order
Caprimulgiformes
, another recent study has cast doubt on the frogmouths' placement within that order,
and they may be distinct enough to warrant an order of their own, Podargiformes, as Gregory Mathews
proposed in 1918.
Genus Podargus
Genus Batrachostomus
Genus Rigidipenna
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s related to the nightjar
Nightjar
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes referred to as goatsuckers from the mistaken belief that they suck milk from goats . Some New World species are named as nighthawks...
s. They are found from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
across southern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
They are named for their large flattened hooked bills and huge frog-like gape
Gape
In bird anatomy, the gape is the interior of the open mouth of a bird and the gape flange is the region where the two mandibles join together, at the base of the beak...
, which they use to capture insects. Their flight is weak.
They rest horizontally on branches during the day, camouflaged by their cryptic plumage. Up to three white eggs are laid in the fork of a branch, and are incubated by the female at night and the male in the day.
The three Podargus species are large frogmouths restricted to Australia and New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, and have massive flat broad bills. They are known to take larger prey such as small vertebrates (frogs, mice, etc.), which are sometimes beaten against a stone before swallowing. The twelve Batrachostomus frogmouths are found in tropical Asia. They have smaller, more rounded bills and are predominantly insectivorous. Both Podargus and Batrachostomus have bristles around the base of the bill, and Batrachostomus has other, longer bristles which may exist to protect the eyes from insect prey. In April 2007, a new species of frogmouth was described from the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and placed in a newly established genus, Rigidipenna.
Recent research suggests that the two frogmouth groups may not be as closely related as previously thought, and that the Asian species may be separable as a new family, the Batrachostomidae. Usually placed in the order
Order (biology)
In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
Caprimulgiformes
Caprimulgiformes
The Caprimulgiformes is an order of birds that includes a number of birds with global distribution . They are generally insectivorous and nocturnal...
, another recent study has cast doubt on the frogmouths' placement within that order,
and they may be distinct enough to warrant an order of their own, Podargiformes, as Gregory Mathews
Gregory Mathews
Gregory Macalister Mathews CBE was an Australian amateur ornithologist.Mathews made his fortune in mining shares, and moved to England around 1900....
proposed in 1918.
- Tawny FrogmouthTawny FrogmouthThe Tawny Frogmouth is an Australian species of frogmouth, a type of bird found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania and southern New Guinea. The Tawny Frogmouth is often mistaken to be an owl...
, Podargus strigoides - Marbled FrogmouthMarbled FrogmouthThe Marbled Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands....
, Podargus ocellatus - Papuan FrogmouthPapuan FrogmouthThe Papuan Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.-Taxonomy:The species was originally described by zoologist Jean René Constant Quoy and naturalist Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830....
, Podargus papuensis
Genus Batrachostomus
- Large FrogmouthLarge FrogmouthThe Large Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand....
, Batrachostomus auritus - Dulit FrogmouthDulit FrogmouthThe Dulit Frogmouth is a little-known species of bird in the Podargidae, or frogmouth, family, with a patchily recorded distribution in the mountain forests of northern and central Borneo...
, Batrachostomus harterti - Philippine FrogmouthPhilippine FrogmouthThe Philippine Frogmouth Batrachostomus septimus is a nocturnal bird that is found throughout the Philippine archipelago. It is common in lowland forests and maturing second growth. Little information is known about the bird since it is active only at night and does not make any calls or songs...
, Batrachostomus septimus - Gould's FrogmouthGould's FrogmouthThe Gould's Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests....
, Batrachostomus stellatus - Sri Lanka FrogmouthSri Lanka FrogmouthThe Sri Lanka Frogmouth or Ceylon Frogmouth is a small frogmouth found in the Western Ghats of south India and Sri Lanka. Related to the nightjars, they are nocturnal and are found in forest habitats...
, Batrachostomus moniliger - Hodgson's FrogmouthHodgson's FrogmouthThe Hodgson's Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.Its natural habitat is temperate forests.-References:...
, Batrachostomus hodgsoni - Short-tailed FrogmouthShort-tailed FrogmouthThe Short-tailed Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Indonesia and Malaysia....
, Batrachostomus poliolophus- Bornean FrogmouthBornean FrogmouthThe Bornean Frogmouth is a subspecies of bird in the Podargidae family. Many taxonomists consider it to be a subspecies of the Short-tailed Frogmouth. Some taxonomists consider it to be a distinct species. It is found in Indonesia and Malaysia...
, Batrachostomus poliolophus mixtus
- Bornean Frogmouth
- Javan FrogmouthJavan FrogmouthThe Javan Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family. The species is sometimes known as Horsfield's Frogmouth.It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand....
, Batrachostomus javensis - Blyth's FrogmouthBlyth's FrogmouthThe Blyth's Frogmouth is a species of bird in the Podargidae family.It is found in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam....
, Batrachostomus affinis - Sunda FrogmouthSunda FrogmouthThe Sunda Frogmouth is a species of bird, typically placed in the family Podargidae of the order Caprimulgiformes. But recent research suggests that the old order Podargiformes should be re-established, wherein like its closest relatives it might be better placed in a distinct family...
, Batrachostomus cornutus
Genus Rigidipenna
- Solomons Frogmouth, Rigidipenna inexpectata
External links
- Frogmouth videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Video: Finding the Sri-Lanka Frogmouth, Southern India
- Scientists discover new genus of frogmouth bird in Solomon Islands