Jacqui Cleijne . Wildlife Artist

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Scientific name: Podargus Strigoides

Tawny Frogmouths live in forests and woodlands.
During the day they sit upright and motionless on branches or on the ground, head tilted up and eyes closed to slits.
The tufts of bristly feathers around their broad, triangular beak help to break up their outline, and their plumage, which is finely streaked and mottled in grey, brown and reddish brown, resembles tree bark in the dappled forest light. So perfect is their camouflage that a frogmouth roosting in a tree looks just like a tree branch. If this disguise is penetrated, however, it adopts a threatening pose, fluffing out its feathers, displaying their large orange eyes and opening their beaks, in a wide frog-like gape to reveal a startling yellow throat.
At dusk, frogmouths begin hunting for food. From a perch they watch the ground for insects, small frogs and lizards, planing down on them on their long, rounded wings.
All Australian frogmouths are spring and summer breeders, pairs forming lifelong bonds and occupying the same small patch of forest throughout the year. The pair build their nest together, breaking twigs into small pieces and weaving them into a platform in the fork of a tree. They also share incubation.
Tawny frogmouths are common throughout Australia wherever there are trees and space to hunt for food, though they are scarcer in dense rainforest and the sparse interior.
Frogmouths are so well camouflaged that their humming ‘ooom-ooom’ call is often the only clue to their whereabouts. They resort to aggressive behaviour-feathers fluffed out and beak wide open-only when their camouflage is unsuccessful. Tawny frogmouths lay up to four eggs, which hatch into downy chicks after a month. Parents share all the nesting duties, including incubation, brooding, and feeding of their young. After the breeding season frogmouth families often perch side by side on the same branch during the day.

NEW! Tawny Frogmouth Family

Watercolour on cold pressed, heave wight wc paper
A2 size

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NEW! Tawny Frogmouth Family 2

Oil on stretched cotton canvas
A2 size

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NEW! Tawny Frogmouth Family 2

Watercolour on Archers 300gsm water colour paper
A2 size

SOLD

NEW! Tawny Frogmouth Family 3

Graphite Pencil on cold pressed Fabriano watercolour paper
A2 size

FOR SALE

Scientific name: Platycercus caledonicus

Other names: Tasmanian Rosella, Mountain Rosella. Found only in Tasmania. They live in coastal and mountain eucalypt forests, woodlands and scrubs, temperate rainforests and forest edges from sea level to 1500 metres, avoiding open fields.

NEW! Green Rosellas 1 & 2

Coloured Pencil on heavy weight Archival paper

A3 size

FOR SALE