Gould's frogmouth (''Batrachostomus stellatus'') is a nocturnal species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the order

Caprimulgiformes Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tal ...

and the family Podargidae. It is one of the 12 species in the

Batrachostomus ''Batrachostomus'' is a genus of frogmouths. The generic name is a direct translation from the Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language ...

genus. Its common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

(1804-1881).

Description

Gould's frogmouth is a medium-sized bird that will approximately weight 47 to 48.5 g and measure 21 to 25 cm. It can be seen in two different morphs. They both have the same patterns except that one is light and the other one is dark. They are mostly brown and have a white collar with some scattered white spots on the cover of the wings. The underparts have oval-shaped spots that appears whitish. Contrarily to the other frogmouths, the males and females are very similar. However, some differences arise which permit their identification. The females will have a darker reddish-brown color. Moreover, females have brown

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

and yellowish legs while the males have yellow iris and pinkish legs.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found solely in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. More precisely, it is found in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

, certain regions of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, and in

Southern Thailand Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounded ...

. However, it is mostly present in Malaysia and Singapore. The habitat of Gould's frogmouths is tropical rainforest. They are mostly found in forest with native tree species that has not been disturbed by humans. This species usually lives in lowland forests. They can live in altitude as high as 500 m.

Diet

Gould's frogmouths are

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

like many other frogmouths in the area. They will feed on different types of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s, on certain

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and on

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

Reproduction

The breeding season can differ depending on the location of the birds. In the Malaysian area, it is from June to September and in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

it is from February to July. The incubation time is about 30 days and both parents will do the incubation. The nest is made with some of the parent's down and is usually small and shallow. Using some branches and lichens, the parents hide the nest to protect it from predators. The nests are mostly found at 1.3 m high and the females will lay one egg per clutch. The eggs have an oval shape and are white.

Conservation status and threats

According to the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

, the Gould's frogmouth species is categorized as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

. Its population is continuously decreasing. This is due to the threats to its habitat. In Southern Thailand, there is a critical decline in the bird populations living in the lowland areas because the deforestation of the lowland forests by humans is destroying the habitat of different species. Therefore, Gould's frogmouth species is facing local extinction in Thailand. However, this species is spread in many different regions of Southeast Asia, so it reduces the risks of total extinction.

References

External links

Image at ADW
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1263350

Gould's frogmouth Gould's frogmouth (''Batrachostomus stellatus'') is a nocturnal species of bird in the order Caprimulgiformes and the family Podargidae. It is one of the 12 species in the Batrachostomus genus. Its common name commemorates the English ornitholog ...

Birds of Malesia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot