Tawny Frogmouths better by the dozen

Every year many WIRES volunteers find themselves inundated with chicks. Among others, we see many tawny frogmouth chicks. They come into care for a variety of reasons, sometimes a run of wild weather will contribute, other times there is no single recognisable cause for the influx.

In the first instance we try to place them back with their parents however when there are already other chicks in the nest it is often a case of - they all rolled over and one fell out - and it is very hard to place the one that has fallen from a nest back where it belongs when it is high up in a eucalyptus tree.

When it is very busy it is often necessary for volunteers with large aviaries to specialise so we can keep the same species together. Someone will take in the magpie chicks and others the tawnies.

The ones in this picture mostly came in as tiny white fluff balls. Once they are able t feed themselves we take notice of who is sitting with each other and start to send them to other carers who have appropriate release sites in pairs or trios so that we do not over burden one area.

On occasion an adult tawny comes into care during this time and we have observed them feeding the little ones. All of the tawny frogmouth chicks pictured here were successfully raised, rehabilitated and released to the credit of our very hard working WIRES volunteers.

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