Strolling along the drive one day I spotted a Tawny Frogmouth perched in a tree - returning with the camera I was disappointed to find the bird had flown.

However as I returned to the temple I noticed a dead branch in the fork of a gum tree next to the road which looked odd - there seemed to be a lot of sticks caught in the fork and the “dead wood” was surrounded by ample healthy branches.

Zooming in I discovered, to my delight, that it was a Tawny Frogmouth in its daytime camouflage of a dead stick. This pose is so perfect that I would not have been able to discern the difference without the zoom.

The Field Guide to Australian birds says this:

Probably the best known Australian nocturnal bird; occasionally seen in camouflage pose on an exposed limb,stiffly posed to mimic a broken branch. The streaked and mottled plumage looks like old weathered wood or bark, the bill and bristles like the jagged end of a broken branch, and the untidy white spots and dark streaks are like lichens and sap stains on old timber. Yellow eyes look through narrowed slits; the head turns almost imperceptibly to follow an intruder's movements.

I couldn't agree more.

More delight was in store when I noticed a white ball of fluff was in fact a newly-hatched chick and the rapt attention of the parent was no doubt heightened by the nestling.

Meanwhile, in a tree not far away, the other parent kept a wary eye out for intruders, too.

This photograph was taken from a long way away and the bird did not, as yet, feel the need to become camouflaged.

However as I approached the Frogmouth slowly and impreceptably adopted the classic "dead stick" pose and seemed to vanish.

Another shot of this most charming of all camouflage experts Podargus strigoides

We had by now discovered that there were 3 chicks in the nest who were learning the camouflage trade - they were already putting their skills to the test in the nest.

Within a very short time they had been coaxed from the nest to a nearby limb where the lessons seemed to be continuing.

The next day (after this photo was taken I couldn't see where they had gone to but, a few nights later a friend managed to get the pictures below so that we knew they were still in the area.

Sadly I had found the carcass of one of the chicks on the ground near the nesting tree - it looked like it had fallen prey to a wandering predator - by now only 2 of the chicks were surviving.

• Satin Bower Birds
• Cockatoos
• Bird feeding contests
• Ducks.
• Finches & Mannikins
• Flycatchers
• Tawny Frogmouth
• Herons
• Honeyeaters

• Birds of Prey
• Kingfishers
• Lorikeets  
• Parrots
• Pigeons and Doves.
• Plovers - Masked Lapwing
• Welcome Swallows
• Feeding Welcome Swallow Chicks
• Water Birds (other)
• Birds without a page of their own

• Platypus.
• Koalas
• Possums

• Carpet pythons
• Water Dragons
• Tree Snakes.

• Frogs.

• Insects

• Encounters with the domestics.

• A Midnight Visitor.