Tawny Frogmouths

Is this a branch or a bird?

You're right - it's a bird, but if we were standing at the bottom of a tree, it would look just like a bit of wood, don't you think? (We were only about four feet away when I took this picture).

These are tawny frogmouths. (Sometimes they're called "owls" because some people think they look like owls, but they're not). The only reason we got to see them is that these tawny frogmouths had been injured and could no longer fly, so they now live at Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Here's one that Sylvia was lucky enough to stroke:

She said the feathers felt soft.

The first day we went to Sylvia's school (before classes started), the principal spied a feather on the ground and asked Sylvia to pick it up. She told us that it was from a tawny frogmouth and that they lived in the Morton Bay fig trees around the school. Here's the feather:








And these are the Morton Bay fig trees next to Sylvia's school:

Here's another shot (taken from the school's basketball courts) of the trees in which you can see their leafy canopy:

 If you were a bird, don't you think these trees would be an enticing place to hang out?

If you want to know more about tawny frogmouths, try this link.