Tawny frogmouth lying on the ground, then flying away. Part 1 of 2

[patrontequila1234]

when i saw the thumbnail i was all like "RIO?!?!?!?!?"

[RobbyGMac]

LOL - yep - I am sure he was wondering "WTF?". Have not repeated the exercise, and they are still with us. Have had two mating cycles since, and the latest fledging has only just headed off on his own.

[alienkilla22]

*pours water* *tawny gets up*

" Did you just pour fucking water on me!! "

[CanadianReich]

well hes all fanned out so im guessing he is either warming himself up or cooling himself down.......eh?

[Tactual]

We have wild ones in our area they even land on our back verandah in the afternoon and we can feed them mince meat

[yuni322]

i seen one of those in austrailla

[alienkilla22]

@yuni322 yeah my sister had one on her car one night, but thats all i have really seen of them

[rock127388]

that is just beautifullllllllllllllllllllll­lllllll

[puffherb]

that behavior is called "anting" look it up. nice vid!

[maddawgqeiwfje]

sometimes i see birds doing this at my place... one possible reason for this behaviour may be that they are trying to get rid of the bird lice. sometimes when my chickens have an infestation, they will lie on the concrete, on their side with their wings outstretched, similar to what the frogmouth is doing in your vid. any other ideas?

i do like the frogmouths, they are quite tame (see my vid entitled "i tickle da bird").

[RobbyGMac]

You are quite correct. I contacted Taronga Zoo about the behaviour as I was concerned the bird was sick. However, they reassured me it was perfectly normal, and a way to air out the feathers (particularly their wings) which can become a home for many insects and parasites after a while. The heat helps to keep these nasties at bay. What was amazing was the bird chose to do it in front of me. I keep a very close paternal eye on them so they are used to me, but they are anything but tame!

[RobbyGMac]

I am surprised that in your video you got so close, even to one not fully grown, as they can get quite narky when that happens, and they have a little known but extremely painful defensive mechanism which involves launching a special type of very accurate excrement at would be attackers. I found this out inadvertently once when I unknowingly walked under one perched immediately above me. I have a Peter Garrett cut, so it scored a direct and very painful, messy hit!

[RobbyGMac]

This prompted me to study them a little more to understand their behaviour. Fascinating animals, and really quite beautiful. And they fly completely silently, which is eerie, but extremely graceful.

[gulfgypsy]

What a cool bird!!!