Tawny frogmouths are often confused as being part of the owl family however they actually sit in the same group as nightjars, nighthawks and whippoorwills. Once paired tawny frogmouths will usually mate for life and work together to raise their young taking turns incubating the eggs and then feeding their chicks. Often parents will sleep during the day facing each other over their nest to shield it from predators, if they sense any danger they will make a loud shrill call which tells the chicks to remain silent and use their camouflage to avoid being eaten.
Although considered least concern tawny frogmouth populations in urban areas are often affected by traffic accidents and through consuming food containing pesticides. In the late 1990’s a specific pesticide used to kill termites was banned in Australia after it was proven to be the cause of many Tawny Frogmouth deaths.
IUCN Red List status: Least Concern
This species has an extremely large population and range and the number of Tawny Frogmouths appears to be stable.
