Fig. 7.6.

A comparison of gum blossoms (top row) and tawny frogmouth chick plumage (bottom row). Young chicks are a similar size to clusters of gum blossoms and show the same spikes of outward white feathers as the stamens (a,b). When young tawny frogmouths are asleep aged 4–10 days they tend to drop their heads down and support them on the substrate. As a result, all that can be seen from above is a matted jumble of whitish matter resembling tightly clustered gum blossoms (c,d). A frogmouth nestling, with eyes and beak largely hidden in the thick plumage, here resembles a large greyish white cluster of gum blossoms (e,f).