The Most Unique - Sri Lankan Frogmouth

Koyna, Maharashtra

Certain species of beasts are in a class of their own just because they are. Their evolution took a very different route in comparison to others and that pretty much makes them unique and such a delight to encounter and watch. The obvious list of such creatures will definitely include Humans, Octopus, Hyenas and Bats to name a few but personally, I don’t think I’ve seen any creature as unique as the Frogmouth yet. These guys are surely not as well known as the ones often referenced as “different” but I guess that’s mostly cause they are as uncommon as they are different. Running into this guy was a wonderful surprise for me and I think I did pretty OK cause this guy let me sneak up pretty close to him. Dude didn’t really care about my presence to be honest.

We found my guy at Koyna, which I visited during my trip to Maharashtra in October last year. These nocturnal birds are said to be closer to Nightjars than to Owls; physiologically that is. They’re completely dissimilar to both those references to look at though. In fact, the closest thing to these guys visually, irrespective of overall size might be the Shoebill in my opinion and it’s the presence of that oversized beak and mouth on both these bird species that probably makes them look similar to me. Only found in Sri Lanka and the south of India, these guys may put up a scary front initially given their nocturnal lifestyle, big eyes and that huge face but just a little observation made me realize that if anything, their features are comically interesting at best and all of the fuss rotates and revolves around my poor guy’s huge mouth. The joke’s on us really cause we’re just skittish at night and if anything, my guy with that big mouth would probably just need to chill with his mouth open by the tree trunk to have prey inadvertently just fall into that big face of his. He doesn’t really do that but it’d just so funny to watch if he did. They actually use those wide beaks to snatch prey easily when they swoop down on em in the dark of the night aided by those big night vision enabled eyes and owl like silent flight. Form, factor and beauty all rolled into their way of doing things. Don’t agree with the beauty part? Too bad, I’m sure the females of his kind don’t find you pretty either. Hey, I’m complementing him on his camouflage and hunting prowess here and not poking fun at all but, “Damn, that’s a huge mouth on that bird man !”

That big mouth and beak actually enables my guy to punch well above his category given his size and weak talons. They are around 23 cms long and have weak feet with short, small toes which are no good for grabbing prey. Instead, they use that big beak to easily grab mice and other rodents about half their size who they beat against a branch or trunk to kill before consumption. Unlike owls, their hunting technique involves grabbing prey with the beak and not with the talons and while raptors like owls use their beaks to shred prey apart, these guys smash, kill and swallow and this sets them apart from raptors in general.

My guy didn’t really react on seeing us with the flash light when we found him. I’d read that they tend to raise their heads and try to blend in with their surroundings when alarmed. I guess we just didn’t alarm him enough. Dude didn’t even flinch and just stared us with that judgmental look in Pic : 2 which changed to what looks like that mischievous smile in Pic : 15. In actuality though, he was only moving his eyeballs and keeping himself aware of his entire field of vision while completely disregarding our presence in his scene for the 10 minutes or so that we spent checking him out. I stumbled upon a nifty new trick that’s pretty handy with subjects like this guy that night. Repositioning the little light while you move around the subject simultaneously works well for getting a little variety in your photographs of stubborn subjects like my guy here. It’s the only thing you can do without invading his space really. Altering the intensity and direction of light can give you many different backgrounds to work with cause that stubborn subject won’t even bother acknowledging you and you’ll lose him if you get him too uncomfortable. So the strategy was to flash, click, turn off, reposition camera and light, flash again and click again. It’s a pretty cool trick if I may say so myself and I’ll be sure to keep it in mind. I really love the different backgrounds and looks that we actually managed to pull off from a single stationary subject doing that.

We can tell that my guy here is male given his pale colour. The females of the species are usually brighter to look at which although uncommon in birds seems to be pretty much the norm for Frogmouth species from Asia with the Indian females sporting more speckles on the crown than the females of the species found in Sri Lanka. Often classified as close to Nightjars, their classification perhaps was a compulsion I feel because there wasn’t really anywhere else to put them at. With those huge eyes at the front of their heads giving them binocular vision unlike Nightjars, their weak legs in comparison to Owls and Nightjars and those unique shovel like beaks, these guys are as unique as they come like I wrote at the beginning of this post. All nocturnal birds ie, Frogmouths, Nightjars and Owls have excellent camouflage, silent flight and large eyes that provide good night vision. Guess all of that probably comes with the package of being a nocturnal bird and that’s the reason why these guys have been placed in their own scientific order called Podargiformes in 2019. So yeah, the next time someone tells me that a Frogmouth is related to a Nightjar, I think I know to tell them that they’re probably incorrect on that. They’re themselves and that’s just that despite how few of their kind may be about.

I hadn’t expected this guy in Maharashtra. I was under the impression that they were seen further south of the country exclusively and meeting this guy in Koyna ticked off a huge tick on my bird bucket list. Koyna’s a pretty interesting destination for birds and this little guy wasn’t the only surprise that Koyna had in store for me this time around. I do wish however that I’d had more time there. It’s definitely a destination that warrants more attention and not only for the wildlife. It’s a pretty chilled out, off the beaten track destination for a getaway as well and I’m pretty glad to have found it while chasing birds. I guess I’ll just have to see if my adventures take me there again. The place is simple, the streams run clean and the people live a life there that reminded me of my childhood not because of what they had but how they used it mostly. Yeah, Koyna’s a little gem and you should have a look see if you can.