These are chunky birds, with big heads and long rounded tails.
Tawny frogmouths have greyish feathers, lighter below, streaked with darker grey and some reddish tints. Their large eyes have a yellow iris, and the inside of the wide, heavy beak is yellow.
Both males and females can reach 53 cm in length, and weigh up to 680 grams. For their size, they tend to be heavier than owls.
They make a repetitive low-pitched, breathy call at night: whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo
Frogmouths are masters of camouflage: During the day they sit motionless, with eyes closed, feathers compacted and beak upraised near the trunk of a tree or on a post, looking uncannily like a dead branch.