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Books about Frogmouths

The books are listed in order of publication date with the most recent at the top.


Frogmouths

Family: Podargidae

There are 15 species of frogmouths. These are found in Australasia, South East Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Tawny Frogmouth
Podargus strigoides

Marbled Frogmouth
Podargus ocellatus

Papuan Frogmouth
Podargus papuensis

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

Short-tailed Frogmouth
Batrachostomus poliolophus

Bornean Frogmouth
Batrachostomus poliolophus mixtus

Javan Frogmouth
Batrachostomus javensis

Blyth's Frogmouth
Batrachostomus affinis

Sunda Frogmouth
Batrachostomus cornutus

Solomons Frogmouth
Rigidipenna inexpectata

 

Nightjars, Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird, and Owlet-nightjars of the World

Nigel Cleere

Princeton University Press

2010

"This is the ultimate identification guide to the nightjars, potoos, frogmouths, Oilbird, and owlet-nightjars of the world. Covering all 135 known species of these elusive and cryptically plumaged birds, this illustrated guide features more than 580 superb color photographs depicting every species and many subspecies, including numerous images never before published. Photos of museum specimens are provided for birds for which no images in the wild exist, including species not seen since their original discovery. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features, confusion species, vocalizations, distribution, habitat and altitudinal range, breeding season and sites, egg type and clutch size, downy chick, status, and Red List category. This easy-to-use photographic guide also includes a color distribution map for every species as well as sections on plumage, taxonomy, and more."

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The Owls of Australia: A Field Guide to Australian Night Birds

Stephen Debus

Illustrations: Jeff Davies

Photographs: David Hollands

Envirobook

2009

"This book summarises the features and biology of Australian nocturnal birds, which include some of the most impressive birds found in this region. The owls, and their look-alikes, the frogmouths, feature in this handy and fully illustrated book, which has been written for ordinary bird-lovers, naturalists, and ornithologists. The guide is particularly useful because of the difficulty of identifying some closely similar owl or frogmouth species. Volume 4 of the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, from which the text derives, in a rewritten form, was the first exhaustive review of Australian owls, and contains high-quality colour illustrations of all plumages, including birds in flight. Eight of the colour plates found in the Handbook are reproduced in The Owls of Australia. There are profiles of the biology and behaviour of each species."

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Owls, Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia

David Hollands

Bloomings Books

2008

"This is the most comprehensive book ever published on all seventeen Owls, Nightjars and Frogmouths of Australia. The author has spent over twenty years observing and photographing them to produce an intimate and evocative picture of the lives of these mysterious birds. The book is richly illustrated with over 200 of the author's photographs, taken in the wild and showing all aspects of the birds' lives."

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Tawny Frogmouth

Gisela Kaplan

Australian Natural History Series

CSIRO

2007

"This detailed account of life, behaviour and biology of tawny frogmouths is based on the most comprehensive single study ever conducted on tawny frogmouths, including wild and hand-raised birds. It combines ten years of systematic observation with published research to take us across a surprising range of characteristics and special features of this unusual bird. This book also notes insights derived from specific regional bird fauna surveys across Australia. We are shown this captivating Australian species in completely new and even unexpected ways. We learn that tawny frogmouths are very affectionate, have close bonds with lifelong partners, scream like prowling tomcats when distressed, fight with lightning speed and defend nest sites from reptilian predators by mobbing and spraying pungent faeces at these dangerous opponents. Uncompromising male fights are contrasted with a touching gentleness of males as fathers. We also learn how resilient and unusual tawny frogmouths are in the way they cope with heat and cold, sit out danger, do without drinking for most of their lives, and can use a large variety of food items. The developmental stages of nestlings and juveniles are illustrated with a number of stunning visual images accompanying the text, most of which have never before been described or seen."

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Nightjars and their Allies: The Caprimulgiformes

D.T. Holyoak

Colour plates: Martin Woodcock

Oxford University Press

2001

796 pages, 23 colour plates, numerous halftones, line drawings and maps

This book includes general, introductory chapters which review evidence about the group's evolutionary ancestry and place the birds' distributions, behaviour and physiology in an evolutionary context. The second section provides a comprehensive study of the 118 species giving details of coloration, plumage, moults, geographical variation, body measurements, habitats, behaviour, conservation, and evolution. The 23 superb plates by Martin Woodcock illustrate all the species, with behaviour and subtle variations depicted by delicate halftone drawings.

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Nightjars: A Guide to Nightjars and Related Night Birds

Nigel Cleere and Dave Nurney

Pica / Yale University Press

1998 / 2000

This book fully covers this popular group of birds. The text has been thoroughly researched, both in the museum and in the field, and the plates depict feather-by-feather detail, allowing identification of all species, providing adequate views are obtained. As voice is so important in nightjar identification, an accompanying CD with the voices of many species was also produced to be sold with the book.

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Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 5: Barn-Owls to Hummingbirds

Edited by Josep Del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott and Jordi Sargatal

Lynx Edicions

1998

759 pages, 76 colour plates, 406 colour photos, 758 distribution maps.

This volume covers covered are barn owls, typical owls, oilbirds, frogmouths, owlet-nightjars, potoos, nightjars, swifts, tree-swifts and hummingbirds.

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Cuckoos, Nightbirds and Kingfishers of Australia

Editor: Ronald Strahan

Birds Of Australia series

The National Photographic index of Australian Wildlife

Angus & Robertson

1994

"This volume includes some non-passerine families: cuckoos, owls, frogmouths, nightjars, owlet nightjars, swifts, kingfishers, and bee-eaters; and some passerine families: pittas, lyrebirds, scrub-birds, larks, swallows, pipits, wagtails, cuckooshrikes, trillers and bulbuls. Full descriptions are accompanied by colour photographs and distribution maps."

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Australian Owls, Frogmouths and Nightjars

Jill Morris & Lynne Tracey

Great Glider

1993/2003

"A stunning collection of portraits of Australia's night birds. Each one features a detailed report, a distribution map, a poem, and a painting in gouache of the bird against the background of its natural habitat and the food it eats."

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Birds Of The Night: Owls, Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia

David Hollands

Reed

1991

224 guide with colour photographs that covers the 16 species of owls, frogmouths and nightjars of Australia.

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Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan, Vol. 4

Frogmouths to Pittas

Salim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley

Oxford University Press (India)

1970

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Catalogue Of The Picariae In The Collection Of The British Museum

Upupae, Trochili and Coraciae (Cypselidae, Caprimulgidae, Podargidae, and Steatornithidae)

Catalogue Of The Birds In The British Museum, Volume XVI

Upupae, Trochili: Osbert Salvin

Coraciae: Ernst Hartert

14 colour plates: J.G. Keulemans

Printed By Order Of The Trustees

Sold by: Longman & Co.; B. Quaritch; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.; and at the British Museum (Natural History)

1892

From the preface:

"The preparation of the present volume was commenced in the year 1887, but its publication has been delayed from several causes: the desire of profiting by the most recent attempts at classification rendered changes in the serial arrangement of the families necessary; Mr. Salvin, who at first intended to undertake the whole of the Macrochirous families, together with the Podargidae, was prevented by other engagements from proceeding beyond the Trochilidae, so that a substitute had to be introduced to the work; and, finally, the material to be catalogued was unusually heavy, as it not only comprises the two largest collections of Humming-Birds that have been made hitherto, viz. those of the late Mr. J. Gould and of Messrs. Godman and Salvin, but was also increased by the accessions of the last four years. Consequently the contents of this volume greatly exceed those of any of the previous ones, as will be seen from the following statement: Upupae, 16; Trochili, 482; Cypselidae, 78; Caprimulgidae, 86; Podargidae, 24; Steatornithidae 1. Of the 687 species recorded, 50 are not represented in the Museum; but besides the 211 types of species admitted as valid, the Collection contains 62 other typical specimens, the names of which are now relegated to the synonymic lists. With regard to the types of Trochilidae, their number cannot bo given with absolute certainty, as Gould did not always pay regard to distinctive labelling or to the preservation of individual specimens which he would have wished to be regarded as the types of the species named and described by him."
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Last updated September 2013