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Bird · Batrachostomus moniliger
Sri Lanka frogmouth
IUCN LC · Least concern
A nocturnal bird that looks like a broken branch: a huge flattened gape, bristles round the bill, and plumage that imitates dead bark.
How to recognise it
Essentially impossible to find alone. Local guides know day roosts - the same pair returns to the same branch for years - and point out a shape a metre from your face that you would walk straight past.
Where to see it
Kochi
Salim Ali called Thattekad the richest bird habitat in peninsular India, and it became Kerala's first bird sanctuary on his recommendation; over 300 species have been recorded. It is the most reliable place in India to see this bird.
Thattekad (Salim Ali) Bird Sanctuary (often)