Frogmouths | Podargidae

Uilnachtzwaluwen | Podargos

Unlike the nightjars, these birds do not hunt on the wing. They sit on a low branch, wait, and drop onto prey on the ground: beetles, grasshoppers, snails, mice and small lizards, crushed with the heavy bill. The flight is slow and silent and is used over short distances. On cold nights and through the winter they lower their body temperature and fall into a torpor lasting hours, which saves energy when insects are scarce — unusual in a bird of this size. The nest is a thin, untidy saucer of twigs on a horizontal fork, often so open that the eggs can be seen from below; both parents incubate, the male by day. Disturbed, the bird stretches into a stiff, slanting stump and stops moving altogether.