Tawny frogmouth chick born at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo

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This young tawny frogmouth chick is really a bird -- we swear -- despite its resemblance to the fictional pygmy puff of Harry Potter lore. It’s one of the newest residents at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, one of only four zoos to have bred the odd-looking creatures in the past six years.

Tawny frogmouths are native to Australia and New Guinea; in fact, this youngster’s parents arrived in Seattle from Australia’s Taronga Zoo earlier this year. Zookeepers cared for the egg in an incubator before it hatched, but the newborn chick was quickly handed over to its parents; zoo staffer Ryan Hawk says they’ve proven attentive caregivers so far.

Tawny frogmouths are often thought to be owls, but actually differ from ‘true owls’ in many respects, including anatomy (frogmouths’ beaks and feet are different from owls’) and food-gathering style (frogmouths prefer to wait for prey to come to them, rather than hunting ‘on the wing’ as owls do).

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Erika Schultz / Associated Press