Birds of Australia – The Laughing Kookaburra

the iconic australian Kookaburra

The Australian Laughing Kookaburra is a giant kingfisher synonymous with Australia. Their distinctive call sounds like a fiendishly laughing human and establishes their territory. Their call can be heard early morning and late afternoon. While kookaburras belong to the kingfisher group, they are not closely associated with water and rarely eat fish. However, they have been known to take goldfish from garden ponds.

Iconic Status

The Australian Kookaburra is iconic with Australian culture. For example, Olly the Kookaburra was one of the three mascots of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Furthermore, a famous Australian nursery rhyme by Marion Sinclair immortalised the Kookaburra for generations of children. It is also the brand name of Kookaburra Sport, founded in 1890 and named after the original owner’s pet bird. They still produce equipment for cricket, football and hockey leagues, and the most widely used ball used in one-day internationals and test cricket.

laughing Kookaburras in gum tree
Kookaburras in gum tree

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh, Kookaburra

Gay your life must be

Except of Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree a nursery rhyme written by Marion Sinclair in 1934
pair of laughing kookaburras
Kookaburra pair
kookaburra species

There are four species of Kookaburra. The Laughing Kookaburra is native to Australia and lives in Eucalyptus woodland and open forests all along the East Coast of Australia. In contrast, the Blue-winged Kookaburra lives in tropical and subtropical woodlands, swamps, watercourses, canefields and farmlands. They are native to Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea. Finally, the Spangled Kookaburra is native to the Aru Islands of Southern New Guinea, and the Rufous-bellied Kookaburra is native to lowland New Guinea.

spangled kookaburra
Spangled Kookaburra courtesy Wikipedia creative commons.
rufous kookaburra
Rufous Kookaburra courtesy Wikipedia creative commons
male laughing kookaburra
Male Laughing Kookaburra
SIZE AND APPEARANCE

The Laughing Kookaburra is 47cm tall and weighs around 465 grams. Head and chest are off white with dark brown on the back and wings. They have a light blue tinge on the wingtips and a conspicuous eye stripe of dark brown on the face. Their tail is broadly barred with black. They have a brown eye and large beak, dark on top and a pale underside. Their name comes from their iconic laughing call.

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laughing Kookaburra on fence
Laughing Kookaburra

Blue Winged Kookaburra is slightly smaller than the laughing Kookaburra at 42 cm high and weighs around 310 grams. They also lack a large brown eye stripe. Instead, they have a blue tail, with a large amount of bright blue on the wing. Their back is brown, and they have white eyes. Like the laughing Kookaburra, their large beak is dark on top and has a pale underside. However, their call is more similar to maniacal barking.

Blue winged kookaburra
Blue Winged Kookaburra
kOOKABURRA CALL AS SOUND EFFECTS

The iconic call of the Australian Laughing Kookaburra has appeared as a sound effect in many movies. This is regardless of where it’s set, considering kookaburras are only found in Australia and New Guinea. However, filmmakers seem to like including their laughing call to give the impression of an impenetrable jungle. The following are just a few movies that have all used its call.

  • Tarzan, set in African Jungle
  • The Treasure of Sierra Madre, set in a Mexican forest
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark – in the Amazonian rainforest
  • Lost World Jurassic Park – on a fictional island supposedly west of Costa Rica
  • Swiss Family Robinson – on a deserted tropical island in the East Indies
  • Romancing the Stone – a Colombian jungle
  • Aquaman – in the hiddlen jungles at the earths core
  • Listen to Laughing Kookaburra
  • Listen to Blue Wing Kookaburra
the iconic australian kookaburra
Laughing Kookaburra
Behaviour

Unlike many other kingfishers, they rarely eat fish and are closer to birds of prey. They are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating a diet of mice, snakes, insects, small reptiles and young birds. Kookaburras are social birds, accept handouts, and have been known to steal meat from BBQ. They also rarely drink water as they receive most of their moisture from the blood of their prey. Sitting in silence on a tree branch, they watch their prey before swooping down and catching it in their beak. They drop the snakes from great heights or bash them against a tree trunk or rock to kill and soften their prey before devouring them.

Breeding

Kookaburras live in groups and mate for life. The older offspring help the parents care for the new chicks. The breeding season runs from September to January. They build their nests in hollow tree trunks or excavated termite mounds. Their nests are bare chambers, usually no more than 12 metres from the ground. A female will lay 1-4 round white eggs. Both parents share in the 25-day incubation process. Once hatched, the entire family will help feed and protect the young hatchlings.

kookaburra with snake
Kookaburra with a snake – Wikipedia creative commons

The chicks are born blind and featherless. However, they are still highly aggressive. The young chicks are born with a temporary hooked beak, and the first chicks to hatch have the advantage. The chicks use their hooked beak to fight the last chicks to hatch. The first two hatchlings will often peck the remaining chicks to death, thus ensuring more food for themselves. When the chicks mature, they stay with the adults, remaining part of the group and assisting the parents in defending the territory and raising future chicks.

Artificial Introduction Elsewhere

The Kookaburra was introduced to Western Australia in 1897 to control snake numbers. While the introduction was successful, Kookaburra’s now posing a significant threat to native lizard species. They also take up vital nesting hollows used by the endangered black cockatoos, impacting the black cockatoos’ ability to breed successfully.

image by Kellye Wilson
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