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[[Image:ShorttailFrogmouth.jpg]]

'''Common Name:''' Short-tailed Frogmouth<br>
'''Scientific Name:''' Batrachostomus poliolophus

'''Size:''' 7.9-8.7 inches (20-22 cm); '''Wingspan:''' 20.5-21.7 inches (52-55 cm)

'''Habitat:''' Asia; it is endemic to Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is known from a small number of records from the Barisan range. 

The species occurs in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests between 660 and 1,400 m. 

'''Status:''' Near Threatened.  '''Global population:''' Unknown amount of adult individuals with a decreasing population trend. Forest destruction in the Sumatran lowlands has been extensive, but this species's ability to persist at higher elevations suggests that it is not suffering more than a moderately rapid decline.

'''Diet:''' Mostly nocturnal insects. Little is known about feeding habits; gut contents of specimens examined included remains of small beetles and small ''Orthoptera'' species (grasshopper family).

'''Nesting:''' A sexually dichromatic species, with no apparent polymorphic variation in coloration. Males are dull dark rufous-brown with buffish-white collar across upper mantle, and bold white spots on scapulars and wing-coverts. The breast has white scallop-shaped markings, and the flanks and belly are whitish with brownish edges to feathers. It differs from other small, sexually dichromatic Batrachostomus species in the combination of relatively short tail and the details of coloration (as well as sub-montane distribution). Females are brighter, deep rufous to chestnut, with reduced white spotting, and often a narrower collar. Juvenile plumage is unknown.

What little is known about the nesting behavior in this species comes mainly from a single nest found in Sumatra in June 1933. The nest is a small pad with shallow cup, built mainly of down from birds, usually built on the fork of a horizontal branch. The male incubates during the daytime.

Frogmouths lay 1 to 4 white, oval, slightly glossy eggs, which are incubated for about 30 days. Chicks fledge in 25-35 days.

'''Cool Facts:''' It was formerly considered to be the same species as the Bornean Frogmouth (''B. Mixtus'') but that species has extensive white on underparts, the male has a paler crown and the female has much less contrast in the rufous color.



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