Frogmouth

Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) are stealth predators of the Australian night. With their cryptic colouration, enormous eyes and silent flight they could be mistaken for owls. But one look at their weak legs and toes shows they are more closely related to nightjars and their prey is nectar drinking moths, small reptiles and mammals and the flittering, scampering creatures of the leaf litter. No tackling with talons for them; their mode of attack is in their huge gape. When they open their beaks their heads split in half in a Cheshire cat grin. Strategically arranged facial bristles corral the fleeing insect into the warm dark cavern of a mouth and gummy spit manacles them. Then the trap snaps shut. It’s a sticky end.

We spotted this one in the headlights of the car sitting on the dirt track up to the house before it flew into the tree, where Russell caught it on camera. They are not uncommon but are incredibly difficult to spot in their daytime roosts. They sit motionless in a tree fork, stretched up and out in an impossible angle looking exactly like a dead snag.