Tawny Frogmouths  subscribe to the Ostrich Theory …..

When approached, they freeze, stick their heads in the air and shut their eyes.  Mostly this form of disguise works because their plumage matches the bark of the tree and their shape is almost indistinguishable from that of a branch.  But the pair that has taken up part-time residence in my banana tree hasn’t caught on to the fact that brown stands out quite well against a background of green!

These two de-camped when their roosting spot, a huge old turpentine tree on my neighbour’s property, was cut down.  I won’t get into the “which was there first the tree or the house?”, or even the “should you have built your house under a massive tree with branches as thick as a small human?” arguments …

Anyway, their loss is my gain.  So I mow, clatter around with my wheelbarrow and even use my leaf blower a mere three metres below them, and apart from a few reproachful looks, there they sit with eyes resolutely shut.