Frogmouth

Frogmouths
	Tawny frogmouth, at night
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Clade:	Strisores
Clade:	Vanescaves
Order:	Podargiformes; Matthews, 1918
Family:	Podargidae; Gray, 1847
Genera
	Batrachostomus; Podargus; Rigidipenna;

The frogmouths (Podargidae) are a group of nocturnal birds related to owlet-nightjars, swifts, and hummingbirds. Species in the group are distributed in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms.

Biology

They are named for their large flattened hooked bill and huge frog-like gape, which they use to capture insects. The three Podargus species are large frogmouths restricted to Australia and New Guinea, that have massive flat broad bills. They are known to take larger prey, such as small vertebrates (frogs, mice, etc.), which are sometimes beaten against a stone before swallowing.^[1] The ten Batrachostomus frogmouths are found in tropical Asia. They have smaller, more rounded bills and are predominantly insectivorous. Both Podargus and Batrachostomus have bristles around the base of the bill, and Batrachostomus has other, longer bristles which may exist to protect the eyes from insect prey.^[1] In April 2007, a new species of frogmouth was described from the Solomon Islands and placed in a newly established genus, Rigidipenna.^[2]

Their flight is weak. They rest horizontally on branches during the day, camouflaged by their cryptic plumage. Through convergent evolution as night hunters, they resemble owls, with large front-facing eyes.^{[citation needed]}

Up to three white eggs are laid in the fork of a branch, and are incubated by the female at night and the male in the day.^{[citation needed]}

Taxonomy

DNA-DNA hybridisation studies had suggested that the two frogmouth groups may not be as closely related as previously thought, and that the Asian species may be separable as a new family, the Batrachostomidae.^[3]^[4] Although frogmouths were formerly included in the order Caprimulgiformes, a 2019 study estimated the divergence between Podargus and Batrachostomus to between 30 and 50 mya and forming a clade well separated from the nightjars and being a sister group of the swifts, hummingbirds, and owlet-nightjars. The name Podargiformes proposed in 1918 by Gregory Mathews was reinstated for the clade.^[5]

Species

Genus Podargus

Tawny frogmouth, Podargus strigoides
Marbled frogmouth, Podargus ocellatus
Papuan frogmouth, Podargus papuensis

Genus Batrachostomus

Large frogmouth, Batrachostomus auritus
Dulit frogmouth, Batrachostomus harterti
Philippine frogmouth, Batrachostomus septimus
Gould's frogmouth, Batrachostomus stellatus
Sri Lanka frogmouth, Batrachostomus moniliger
Hodgson's frogmouth, Batrachostomus hodgsoni
Sumatran frogmouth, Batrachostomus poliolophus
Javan frogmouth, Batrachostomus javensis
Blyth's frogmouth, Batrachostomus affinis
Sunda frogmouth, Batrachostomus cornutus
Palawan frogmouth, Batrachostomus chaseni
Bornean frogmouth, Batrachostomus mixtus

Genus Rigidipenna

Solomons frogmouth, Rigidipenna inexpectata

In culture

In a journal article published in April 2021, researchers Katja Thömmes and Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring from the Experimental Aesthetics group at the University Hospital Jena, Germany, found the frogmouth to be the most "instagrammable" type of bird.^[6] Using an algorithm to analyze the aesthetic appeal of more than 27,000 bird photographs on Instagram, they found that photos depicting frogmouths received the highest number of likes relative to the posts' exposure to users. The journal article was picked up by several news outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian.^[7]