A Female Papuan Frogmouth on the nest in Cape York, Queensland. The fledgling is lying perpendicular to her, if you look closely you can see the baby's mouth near the chest of the female, and its tail extending on the other side of the tree.

In Australia the Papuan Frogmouth is restricted to north Queensland. It is nocturnal and is usually seen singly, but sometimes in pairs.

In a roost they are very difficult to spot unless you know exactly where to look.

Similar to the Tawny Frogmouth,  the Papuan is larger and has red eyes. The Papuan's habits are also similar to the Tawny Frogmouth although the Papuan's roosting places are often denser. The resonant voice is deeper (oo-oom) and it also has a weird ghostly laugh, 'hoo-hoo-hoo.' As with all frogmouths they have a bristly feathered tuft over its bill and an extremely long tongue that is forked.

Its habitat includes margins of rainforests, tracts, clearings, eucalypt woodlands, scrubs, watercourse vegetation, swamp, dune woodland, mangroves.

It breeds August - January. The nest is scanty, of sticks, on the base of a branch in a heavy fork. The placement in the tree ranges from low to high. It produces 1 - 2 variable white eggs, but mostly just one egg.FBoth parents help out with all the parental duties.

An unattended fledgeling is barely visible in the crook of the tree - this nest was at about 18 feet, photographed at Lotus Bird Lodge in Cape York, Queensland

Frogmouths have large eyes, giving them good night vision, wide gaping bills for feeding on insects and much weaker feet than owls. They are only distantly related to owls.

They flit from perch to perch, pouncing on prey which they detect by movement. Tawny frogmouths eat only nocturnal insects but Papuan frogmouths also catch lizards, frogs, rodents and small birds.

Podargus papuensis apparently secretes a substance in its mouth that attracts flies. It does not have to fly with its mouth agape to catch insects like its relatives. It often just sits on a branch wwwith its huge mouth open and flies enter on their own accord to investigate the source of a promising odor!

References:

Pizzey, Graham and Frank Knight, The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, Angus & Robertson, 1997.

Wildlife Australia - http://www.wildlife-australia.com/site%20map.htm

Science Frontiers - Papuan Frogmouth, http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf092/sf092b05.htm

Australian Owls and Frogmouths - http://home.mira.net/~areadman/owlstop3.htm