A visitor...

As a break from all the gloom, in April 2020, just as the covid lockdowns were biting, we had a visitor, who is still here. One night, I went out to lock the doors and heard an odd humming noise. I looked up at the clothesline and straight above me was a tawny frogmouth, wings half-outstretched and making their usual low hum. While I was standing uncertain whether to walk under it, the bird advanced toward me, clacking its large beak. I wasn't sure whether it was a threat display as they breed in this area and it may have had young nearby to protect. It soon became clear it wasn't threatening me, it was a begging display, same as young birds use. Except it was a mature bird, probably male. So I fed him some leftover chicken, which he gobbled down and then flew off into the night.

He was back each night for about two months, then I decided it was better to stop in case he became too reliant on handouts and didn't hunt. So I stopped, but soon after, I noticed a pair of them roosting low down in a tree in our garden (we have a hectare, 2.5ac). One was shy and immediately went into camouflage pose, like a dead branch, but the other wasn't shy at all and watched me keenly. Soon, he was back for food and later in the year, I saw that he was taking the food to two chicks which were parked quietly in a nearby tree. Over Christmas, he disappeared but I often heard them calling at night down near the creek. In April, 2021, he was back and we went through the same routine until about November, when he brought the chicks up on to the verandah. I have some photos but didn't try to approach them in case it upset the parents.

This is his fourth year. We haven't seen them since Christmas but he flew in the other night and demanded to be fed. He is not frightened at all and is quite content to be patted when he has had his feed. He's a bit wary if other people come too close but he soon gets over them and concentrates on scoffing his food, then flies off into the darkness.

This is most unusual. I've only seen one frogmouth in captivity, a bird that had been hit by a car and couldn't hunt but was happy to be fed and petted. That's the only way they ever appear in zoos and bird parks. This one is a wild animal and this behaviour is probably first time ever recorded. I doubt very much it was raised by humans and simply decided to drop into our place because it liked the view. I suspect he had seen us throwing food to the magpies and pied butcherbirds and decided he needed a bit extra. Either way, I don't think many people have had such an interesting diversion during the lockdown.