Donald Chin, A Family Of Tawny Frogmouth (ANIMAL & NATURE 2025)

In the stillness of a late spring evening, just after sunset, a pair of tawny frogmouths sit quietly upon their nest – a loose platform of twigs balanced in the fork of a gum tree. Only days earlier, their three downy chicks cracked open their fragile shells, greeted not by dawn but by the soft, watchful eyes of their parents. The chicks are tiny, fragile things, clad in fluffy white down that barely holds warmth. For now, their survival depends entirely on their parents. The male, steadfast and patient, spends much of the daylight hours pressed flat against the nest, his mottled plumage blending perfectly with the bark. To any passer-by, he looks like a broken branch, guarding his young in perfect camouflage. The female takes the night shift, gliding silently into the dark to hunt for moths, beetles, and the occasional small frog or lizard. She returns with food held delicately in her wide beak, offering morsels to each gaping mouth. As the days pass, the chicks grow rapidly. Their cries become louder, more insistent, their down giving way to mottled juvenile feathers. By the second week, they stretch and shuffle about the nest, their heads bobbing with curiosity, wide eyes glowing amber in the dusk light. By the third week, the nest feels crowded. The chicks jostle for space, wings half-spread as they test their strength. Their camouflage begins to show, soft greys and browns blending with the branches. At last, after nearly a month of constant care, the chicks are ready to take their first clumsy steps away from the nest. They perch nearby, awkward and uncertain, but always under the watchful gaze of their parents. For several more weeks, the family stays together, the young learning how to hunt, how to sit perfectly still in daylight, how to vanish into the bark of a tree. And so, what began as three fragile downy bundles in a twiggy nest becomes a new generation of masters of disguise—silent hunters of the night, ready to take their place in the eucalypt forest.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.