The large frogmouth (''Batrachostomus auritus'') is a 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 family Podargidae. 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 ...

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 ...

, and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, in

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

of its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

poses a risk to its survival, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature 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 ...

has listed it as being "

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 ...

Description

The large frogmouth is considerably larger than other members of its genus and grows to a length of about . The sexes are similar and the colouring is rather variable, the upper parts being mainly chestnut and blackish-brown, barred and spotted with white and buff. The underparts are dull brown or pale rufous, the belly being paler than the breast. The beak is horn-coloured with a darker tip, the gape being yellow, the irises are some shade of light or dark brown, and the legs are a dull yellow.

Distribution and habitat

The species occurs in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Its range extends from southern

, through

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

and peninsular

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

. Its habitat is primary lowland forest, but it is also found in secondary forest and in areas of regenerating growth. It is found at elevations from sea level to at least 250 m, and perhaps to 1000 m.

Ecology

The behaviour of this bird is not well known. It hunts by night, on the ground and in the canopy, feeding on insects such as

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s and

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...

s. It roosts by day, perching on a branch or hidden in a hole, singly or possibly in pairs. On one occasion an individual was mobbed by a

greater racket-tailed drongo The greater racket-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus paradiseus'') is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dic ...

until it flew off into dense cover. Sings, mainly by night, from a perch in a tree, its voice being variously described as a repeated "deep hollow-sounding tremolo" or as a "series of four to eight loud, liquid trills". The nest is firmly attached to a slender branch of a shrub or small tree. It consists of a circular cushion of down on which the single egg is balanced; the egg would fall off were it not for the incubating parent bird which crouches lengthwise along the branch rather than across it.

Status

''B. auritus'' is uncommon throughout most of its range. The total population is unknown, but the number of birds is likely to be decreasing in parallel with the destruction of lowland tropical forest throughout its range. The

has assessed its conservation status as being "

References

External links

Image and Classification at Animal Diversity Web
{{Taxonbar, from=Q431702

large frogmouth The large frogmouth (''Batrachostomus auritus'') is a species of bird in the family Podargidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. Logging of its habitat poses a risk to i ...

Birds of Malesia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot