Palawan frogmouth

 

Ebird describes it as "A medium-sized night bird of lowland forest on Palawan, where it is the only frogmouth. Male is gray-brown and lightly speckled above with barred flight feathers and tail. Female is more rufous-brown with less patterning. Both sexes have a broken white line above the shoulder and are heavily scalloped with white on the belly, more sparsely on the chest. Note the prominent whiskers around the face. More often heard than seen. Voice is a raspy, whistled “reh-weuu!” with the second note falling."^[2]

it was formerly conspecific with the Javan and Blyth's frogmouth under the Horsfield's frogmouth species complex. It is most similar to Blyth's but is differentiated by the lack of black spotting on iits crown and having white spots instead. However, there seems to be a large amount of variance and morphs between each individual and thus further study is required to properly validate its status as a species. ^[3]

Diet is pressumed to be insects but there is no published data on the specifics of its diet. Breeding season is pressumed to be from June to August. Nest is a small pad of vegetation mixed with down feathers. Clutch size is believed to be 1 to 2 white eggs. ^[4]

Its habitat is primary lowland forest and second growth with dense tangles and bamboos. Elevational range is poorly known.

As the Handbook of the Birds of the World and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, recognize the Palawan frogmouth as a subspecies of the Javan frogmouth, the IUCN has yet to assess it. However, Palawan's forests are under threat due to illegal logging, deforestation and mining and is reasonable to believe that this bird's population is declining. The whole of Palawan was designated as a Biosphere Reserve; however, protection and enforcement of laws has been difficult and these threats still continue. It occurs in just one protected area in the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm.^[5][3]