It's official, the Tawny Frogmouth is Australia's favourite bird

Last month the Tawny Frogmouth was named Birdlife Australia’s 2025 Bird of the Year, beating out Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo, endemic to Western Australia, and the endangered Gang-gang Cockatoo.

Unlike the runners up, Tawnies are found right across the country, in all habitats, including usually in my very small backyard, but currently in the bush across the road because they’re nesting (more on that later) and are classed as being of ‘least concern’ in terms of threat of extinction.

But that doesn’t mean that Tawnies are not facing threats. Sure, they’re adapted to urban life but it's those very trappings of suburbia that are causing them the biggest risk, think: second-generation anticoagulant rat poisons (SGARs), habitat clearing and car strikes as the birds hunt for insects attracted to the glow of streetlights.

So they might not be rare or endangered, but here are our reasons why we think the Tawny Frogmouth deserves its flowers.

They're great parents

Right now, we’re in the thick of tawny breeding season, which runs from about August to January. Our backyard pair – and they’re a real pair as tawnies mate for life – always move across the road to the same spot to nest, high up in the eucalypt canopy. Now, I love these birds but it has to be said, they’re terrible nest builders.

Their nest seems to consist of a bunch of sticks and foliage thrown onto the most precarious branch they can find. For dodgy nest location choice, they are only second to the notoriously haphazard Masked Lapwing. Footy oval nesting, anyone?

However, what they lack in nest building skills, they make up for in parenting. The male sits on the nest during the day while the female roosts close by and both parents take turns incubating the eggs overnight and feeding the chicks once they hatch.

For some reason, our female is all snuggled up to another tawny while dad is on the nest and we have absolutely no idea who this third wheel is (possibly offspring from a previous year) but it’s yet another reason why I love these funny birds – you never know what to expect with them!

They're great pest controllers

While tawnies are not owls, they do hunt rats and mice, are partial to cockroaches and other insects, will happily snatch up spiders and will grab a frog if they're about. Sure, the frogs are taking it a bit too far, but they can have their fill of mice and centipedes any day.

They have adorable babies

Typically, tawnies will lay 2-3 eggs, although this year we just have the one chick. But let me tell you, the babies are next level adorable, starting out like fluffy white marshmallows and turning a more mottled grey colour at about two weeks of age. And I mean, look at their goofy faces, with that wide beak perfect for scooping up prey and those huge yellow eyes that make night hunting a breeze.

Take another look at the chicks' faces and tell me they're not your favourite bird too.