Tawny Frogmouth Oscar in the Forest Gallery
Image: Luke Simpkin
Source: Museum Victoria
The Forest Gallery at Melbourne Museum has started closing early to accommodate the needs of its avian residents. Until 12 July 2009, the gallery will close at 4:30pm.
This is because the shorter days of winter trigger early roosting behaviour in the Forest Gallery birds. Since the birds like to feed before settling in for the night, the keepers must provide the birds with their supper earlier also. Roosting birds are easily alarmed and fly blindly into the glass walls if visitors approach them, for the birds' protection and for the safety of visitors negotiating the unlit pathways, the gallery will close early.
However, the early dusk has the reverse effect on the Tawny Frogmouths (Podargus strigoides). Being nocturnal, they become active close to dusk and may be seen perching near the doorway from which keepers emerge with their evening ‘breakfast’ of mice.
The Forest Gallery is home to two Tawnies - Oscar (a female) and Albert (a male) - which are perfectly camouflaged when they sleep high in the trees during the day. They do have a preference for Silver Wattles as perching trees which is a useful hint for bird-watchers in the gallery.
It is sometimes possible to see the shadowy forms of Oscar and Albert flying around in the gallery after dark from vantage points on the balcony or east ramp. There are also wild Tawny Frogmouths in Carlton Gardens which sometimes fly up and down outside the wire, no doubt responding to the captive birds. A pair has nested for the last few spring breeding seasons in an Elm tree adjacent to the Loading Dock entrance and have raised several chicks. Their favourite nest location can be easily seen from the Milarri Garden pathway.