This is Tany Frogmouth, An Australian bird assumes a completely frozen posture with its eyes closed when it senses danger, and obviously from its name it is like having frog mouth

[u/opmgyhx]

[u/dr-Guy_Horni]

Not the Tawny frogmouth. This is the Sri Lanka Frogmouth. Native to Sri Lanka and Southern India. Related but different.

[u/Aggressive_Sky8492 → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

The double hit of OP spelling the name wrong plus having the completely wrong animal

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/Aggressive_Sky8492]

Lol I did not see that

[u/halfcookies → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

Freeze-uh! Sri Lanka PD!

[u/liftheavy2003]

Looks like a judgmental librarian

[u/EddieCase67 → u/liftheavy2003]

Ook!

[u/Wotmate01]

Wish this sub allowed pictures in the comments, I've got a Tawny Frogmouth family that lives in my suburb and regularly visits my back yard.

Here's an imgur gallery instead: https://imgur.com/a/tawny-frogmouth-back-yard-sJJ3MVE

[u/ajmeng09 → u/Wotmate01]

Wow i’ve never met anyone who has ever seen one in real life

[u/Aptosauras → u/ajmeng09]

They are a lovely and plentiful bird in Australia, but they are hard to spot during the day because of their excellent camoflauge.

[u/alldagoodnamesaregon → u/Aptosauras]

Until they decide that the dead center of the road is the perfect spot to sit and pretend to be a tree. 

[u/opmgyhx → u/Wotmate01]

You've gotta share that in any way

[u/Wotmate01 → u/opmgyhx]

done, edited

[u/Simple_Substance4829]

I've seen plenty of these guys in the wild and know that neither of those are Tawny Frogmouths, they are fluffier and grey coloured.

It's worth noting that these grumpy little guys are a species of nightjar which is a nocturnal bird species different to owls. Because these guys only eat flying insects the insides of their mouths are bright yellow and they have very little biting strength behind their beak due to the nature of their prey.

Photos aren't allowed in the comments here so have a link to the tawny Frogmouths winning Birdlife's 2025 bird of the year: https://birdlife.org.au/news/australias-2025-bird-of-the-year-the-tawny-frogmouth/?srsltid=AU7gw4UMDxD6GUNQw1LpJWBbVlnSf_lzlocDF0Hh3d1ja5S10CCJZPEx

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/Simple_Substance4829]

That's correct. These are actually Sri Lanka Frogmouth miss labeld as Tawny frogmouth.

[u/Plenty-Giraffe6022 → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

They're not labelled as Tawny frogmouth.

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/Plenty-Giraffe6022]

In the title of the post, I meant

[u/Plenty-Giraffe6022 → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

They're not referred to as Tawny frogmouth in the title of the post. Have you read the title of the post?

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/Plenty-Giraffe6022]

Damn. I did not see that typo

[u/I_Am_Become_Air]

I use the first picture for my inlaw's contact info in my phone. Makes me Crack up every time!

[u/Bobblefighterman]

That's a Ceylon Frogmouth, Tawny Frogmouths are ironically more grey and less tawny than these ones. Same family, different genus.

[u/Drongo17]

Can we see a photo of a Tawny Frogmouth now? This is not them. 

[u/I_might_be_weasel]

The slightly less ridiculous version of the potoo.

[u/LiebnizTheCat]

They look absolutely wonderful. Like Jim Henson creations.

[u/LittleRedCorvette2]

I love these birds. We had some at our zoo. They remind me of muppets!

[u/Spartan2470]

Here are higher-quality and less-cropped versions of these images. Pratik Humnabadkar took the first image in 2018. Not sure who the photographer is of the second image.

[u/BuddahSack]

-___-

[u/xerxes_dandy]

My oldest uncle will drink a beer and go in freeze mode making a similar face as these guys

[u/Investomatic-]

They look like the movie critics from the Muppets.

[u/After_Craft_2509]

TOADY!!

[u/goatjugsoup]

Looks like it belongs in a star wars

[u/temporarymisfit420]

My favorite bird! I even have them tattooed on my arm!

[u/Shitposting4Charity]

Which one is Statler and which is Waldorf

[u/Final_Lingonberry586]

OP didn’t get any of the info right. Clearly doesn’t even know what they’re talking about.

[u/Madman_1992]

Looks like my grand parents

[u/Citizen_0Zer0]

The first picture is how my parents look at me.

[u/AdPlane90]

This isn’t Australian

[u/chilly_chillout]

Potential meme material

[u/Plenty-Giraffe6022]

We don't have tany frogmouths in Australia.

[u/BzFun]

Here in Brazil they are called "Mãe da Lua" (Mother of the Moon) or Urutau (no translation) and few days ago I saw one of these rigth in fornt my house

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/BzFun]

You saw potoos. These are different.

[u/BzFun → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

No, I'm pretty sure is the same of these pictures.

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/BzFun]

That would be concerning because frogmouth are not native to Brazil...

[u/BzFun → u/dr-Guy_Horni]

You right! Just serch here and foud an article expain that they are not the same bird. They are very similar but not the same: "The Frogmouth and the Urutau (family Nyctibiidae, also known as the Potoo or 'Mãe-da-lua') are not the same bird, although they look very similar and have similar habits."

But it's very interesting how similar they are. Thanks for the clarification!"

[u/dr-Guy_Horni → u/BzFun]

They both have evolved to camouflage as tree stumps, hence the similarity!

[u/Thommywidmer]

Why does australia have so many really cool birds?

[u/Drongo17 → u/Thommywidmer]

Our climate conditions are quite different to a lit of the world which has pushed evolution in different directions. Eg we don't have much snow, we are very dry, we have boom/bust seasonal cycles, and our flora gives energy in different ways.

[u/nightWobbles → u/Thommywidmer]

When Australia broke from Gondwana millions of years ago, many birds evolved on their own away from the rest of global competition and adapted to the unique environments of Australia at the time.

[u/Barnaby__Rudge → u/Thommywidmer]

These aren't actually tawny frogmouths.

The real ones are even cooler.

[u/Axel_Clint]

It feels like every week a new season of Pokemon is releasing

[u/tauntonlake]

It looks like a Muppet.