Podargidae – Frogmouths

The Podargidae or frogmouths are a group of nocturnal birds related to the Owlet-nightjars, Swifts & Hummingbirds. They are found from the Indian Subcontinent across Southeast 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 and they are less aerial than most of their relatives. At night, they wait watchfully for passing prey, then pounce on it, subduing it on the ground or a tree trunk.

They tend to rest vertically on branches during the day, camouflaged by their cryptic plumage. (Whereas Nightjars tend to rest horizontally.) Cryptically coloured, they sit quietly by day, often tamely revisiting the same perch for many days at a time, despite visits from human observers. Up to three white eggs are laid in the fork of a branch, and are incubated by the female at night and the male during the day.

Tawny Frogmouths Podargus strigoides – ©Paul Sunman CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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.

Philippine Frogmouth Batrachostomus septimus – ©Dubi Shapiro

Separated from Podargus by the Wallace line, the twelve Batrachostomus frogmouths are found in tropical Asia. They have smaller, more rounded bills and are predominantly insectivorous. Through convergent evolution as night hunters, they resemble owls, with large front-facing eyes. 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.

Gould’s Frogmouth Batrachostomus stellatus – ©Dubi Shapiro

A new species of frogmouth was described (2007) from the Solomon Islands and placed in a newly established genus, Rigidipenna.

Solomons Frogmouth Rigidipenna inexpectata  – ©Joshua Bergmark CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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 cast doubt on the frogmouths’ placement within that order, and they were shown to be distinct enough to warrant an order of their own, Podargiformes, (Gregory Mathews had proposed this as far back as 1918.)