twelve manners of the night-swallows, in 2 types summarized, forms an independent family.
Shape Schwalme are brown, black and sallow patterned plumages quite big, exclusively night-active birds with it for the entire order so typical, soft and camouflage-colored. The powerful beaks are very big and above all very wide, why all members of this family are called (frog-mouths) "Frogmouths" in the English. At the front end, the beak runs out into a hakig-abwärts of turned top. The wings of the Schwalme are relatively short and verrundet; its flight therefore is not very agile.
Way of life The birds live individually or in pairs and rest during the day however well in upright attitude camouflaged in the branches. With concern, Schwalme remain completely motionlessly in its typical fright-position, in which hardly distinguishing it from a branch is. Head and front-bodies are stretched diagonally away on that occasion from the seat-branch upward so that the birds like the broken off part of a branch-fork look. Only if the trouble-maker approaches very densely, the Schwalme take off. At night, they very actively become on the other hand and pick up bigger Gliedertiere (Tausendfüßer, spiders, insects), amphibians, reptiles and occasionally also small mammals from the ground. Also fruits take Schwalme from and at gladly to itself. All types live in forests or tree - and bush-existed open areas.
Type Podargus it includes the 32,5-45 cm of big Eulenschwalm (P). strigoides, Australia and Tasmania; the 45-53 cm long Papuaschwalm (P). papuensis, from Nordost-Queensland, from New Guinea and the neighbor-islands; still the 37-38 cm of big Marmorschwalm (P). ocellatus, from New Guinea and neighbor-islands, that Salomonen and from East-Australia (3 smaller, of each other isolated occurrences). Eulenschwalme vary Südaustraliens (with gray reason-color) in its coloring - according to subtype - of the gray-tan colors up to mainly bay birds in the north of the country.
Way of life The somewhat smaller Eulenschwalme often rest also on the ground during the day. Particularly during the incubation Eulenschwalme let resound monotonous and uniformly on "o" of reputation-rows, that are to be heard far-to. While Eulenschwalme live in all possible ones forested landscapes, if they prefer also big, individually standing trees, somehow, Papuaschwalme populate denser tropics-forests and the edges of the dense rain-forest-areas.
The Marmorschwalm, the sexes differ with this type (the female is less strongly patterned and reddish brown), is restricted in its habitat on dense rain-forests.
Brood These 3 types of the Schwalme build its nests as branch-platforms in branch-forks or on thicker, horizontal branches. The nest consists of 2 (more rarely also 3) white eggs and is incubated by both alto-birds for 30 days, until the white Dunenjungen slip. they are fed by both brood-partners well for 4 weeks.
Frog-mouths (type Batrachostomus)) Here, 9 types of the Schwalme are condensed. With 40-41 cm of total-length, it is the Riesenschwalm, Hornschwalm or the giant-frog-mouth (B). auritus, from Malaya, Sumatra, Borneo and Bunguran the biggest type of this Schwalmgattung. The Malay-frog-mouth (B) is with only 23 cm of length, from what slips on the tail until 11 cm. affinis, one of the smallest Schwalme. As also the other frog-mouths, it lives in the dense rain-forest of the valleys and is night-active so that one only rarely sets eyes on these birds. The type is, besides in the already mentioned areas, also in South-Thailand as well as in wide continental areas Südostasiens and in the eastern Himalayagebiet until Burma (1 types), in southwest-India, in Sri Lanka as well as on some wide islands of the Malay island-world (1 types of the Philippines) spreads.
Brood Frog-mouths differ something for itself from the Australian Schwalmen in its Nistgewohnheiten. they build its nest from own feathers, that they interweave with fine plant-material and webs; the nest consists only of one egg. Frog-mouths live individually outside the incubation. Otherwise, they resemble largely in its biology the 3 Schwalmarten New Guinea and Australia.
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