Laughing Kookaburra
Laughing Kookaburra
Laughing Kookaburra
Common Name: Laughing Jackass, Giant Kingfisher.
Binomical Name: Dacelo novaeguineae
Distribution: Laughing Kookaburra is native to eastern mainland Australia, and has also been introduced to Tasmania, Flinders Island and Kangaroo Island, New Zealand.
Dacelo novaeguineae
Description: Kookaburra is Eastern Australian bird of the kingfisher family (Alcedinidae), whose call sounds like fiendish laughter. It has a large head, short neck, and medium length tail. The bill is long, broad, and somewhat flattened. The head is mostly white with a dark brown crown and a brown stripe through the eye. The breast is creamy white, the wings brown with blue mottling, the back brown and the tail rufous with fine darker brown banding and white edges. Males sport a small patch of blue-green feathers in the center of the rump that is reduced or absent in the female. The eyes are dark brown. The bird reaches a length of 43 cm (17 inches), with an 8- to 10-cm (3.2- to 4-inch) beak. In its native habitat it eats invertebrates and small vertebrates, including venomous snakes. The kookaburra is heard very early in the morning and just after sunset. The related blue-winged kookaburra (D. leachii), which does not “laugh”, but makes a sound of “maniacal cackling”, is found across northern Australia.
