Marbled Frogmouths are the smallest of all frogmouths found in Australia,
with race
"plumiferus"
being the tallest.
Their highly crypticplumage is
dimorphic, i.e.
males and females
are slightly different.
Male
Marbled Frogmouths are primarily light silvery-grey with an abundance
of brownish-grey scalloping on the front, while the back is more
brownish-grey with lighter scalloping.
Females
generally have a more rufous tinge than
males
and can have an overall rufous morphology in which only some spots
on the wing coverts are silvery-grey. The combination of rufous
and dark-grey can lead to an overall dark-brown impression.
All races and both sexes have a proportionally longer tail than
other species of
frogmouths in Australia.
The irises are orange (rarely yellowish). Bill, legs and feet
are grey.
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Marbled Frogmouth is available
HERE
.
There are 5 recognized races of Marbled Frogmouths that
are subdivided into two groups, the "marbled" (ocellatus
group) and the "plumed" group (with only one race,
"plumiferus").
All members of the ocellatus group are found in tropical
regions, on New Guinea (all the way from West Papua to
Normanby Island) the island chain along the Torres Strait
and on Cape York peninsula, QLD.
On the Australian continent, Marbled Frogmouths
are found only in small areas.
Race "marmoratus" resides right at the tip of Cape York peninsula,
QLD, and along a narrow coastal strip along the eastern base of
Cape York peninsula, from Iron Range NP to near Yarraden, QLD.
The southern (subtropical) race
"plumiferus"
is found along the near-coastal eastern slopes of the Great Dividing
Range from Great Sandy NP, QLD, to the Ballina/Lismore area in
north-eastern NSW.
Marbled Frogmouths have a preference for
rainforest
in an altitude range from ca. 50-800 m, in both subtropical
and tropical regions.
Sightings
Click here for sighting information
Race "plumiferus"
M. Eaton reports finding a Marbled Frogmouth, race
"plumiferus",
at D'Aguilar NP, near Mount Mee, QLD, in December 2019. Another
was found at the same location in January 2023.
All sighting, photographic and audio information presented on this
page has kindly been contributed by M. Eaton.
Photos
Race "plumiferus"
This race is also known as the "Plumed Frogmouth".
ADULT
Sex unknown
Near-frontal view of a Marbled Frogmouth, eyes wide open
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[D'Aguilar National Park, near Mount Mee, QLD, January 2023]
Near-frontal view of a Marbled Frogmouth, eyes half closed
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[D'Aguilar National Park, near Mount Mee, QLD, January 2023]
More Marbled Frogmouth sound recordings are available at
xeno-canto.org
.
These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors.
The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.