From Wild Action
'Bandit' the 15 day old Southern boobook owl and "Gandalf the 24 day old tawny frogmouth. Their growth rate is nothing short of magic!
this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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I love Eulenschwalme (German name of frogmouths - still descriptive but less insulting). I've learned of their existence through an Australian TV series named Golden Pennies where one of the bad guys kept a frogmouth as pet.
And an article called: What Instagram Can Teach Us About Bird Photography: 'The Most Photogenic Bird and Color Preferences' declared frogmouths the be most 'instagrammable' bird species.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8073730/
Very interesting! It's always interesting to see what names get given to the same animals.
I think it's a good bird for photos since it is very peculiar in a weird but not uncomfortable way. Plus that tiny baby is so cute, I'd think there's be photos of them everywhere!
That's certainly a different pet for a villain to have! While being a night time carnivorous bird, Australia has a number of intimidating beasties, but I don't think I've encountered anyone intimidated by a frogmouth.
If you want a unique villain bird, I'd go Shoebill (Schuhschnabel)
The Showbill is a good choice!
But I guess they wanted a native bird for authenticity. And who knows if Shoebills are cut out for a life in showbiz.
I'm glad you found a picture! I looked around for a bit but didn't see one.
That guy is pretty creepy, with it without a bird.
The Frogmouth does look to be much more manageable for filming. I hadn't been picturing him walking around with it.
I saw the Shoebill want Australian, but I couldn't remember the scary bird from there yesterday. The Cassowary looks to be the scariest bird down there, but it sounds like it is actually dangerous to be around, not just scary looking, so not so great for a TV show.
So after further review, Frogmouth was the right choice!
Cassowaries look the part, absolutely! And while they certainly can harm people (and dogs), they seem to do that only if provoked and to protect their young. Same as ostriches, which actually seem to kill more people.
But generally Australian Animals are in a class of their own. If you're looking for a thrill, the magpie swooping season can create memorable encounters.
Magpies are an interesting one, as I learned somewhat recently, in that North America and Eurasia have magpies that are corvids like crows and jays, but the Australia ones are a different type of bird altogether. Where I am on the continent, we have no magpies though.
I also learned we have very different possums. It felt alien to me already just going to California and all the birds, plants, and bugs were different. Australia seems like it would be sensory overload getting used to all the unique life!