Spend a well-labeled and surprisingly quiet three minutes with two of Australia‘s notoriously cacophonous kingfishers: The laughing kookaburra and the blue-winged kookaburra. Australian Bird Media‘s Tim Siggs writes that “Australia is home to 2 of the world’s 5 Kookaburras…”
“The Laughing Kookaburra is a well know and reasonably common species that is famous for its raucous calls, which could be considered to be similar to human laughter. They have adapted well to human environments and can be seen in suburban parks. Furthermore, they can become quite tame and in some cases, will feed from the hand.”
“They are hole nesters and nest in larger holes of gums trees but also large arboreal termite mounds, where they raise between 2-3 young. They hold breeding territories and are assisted in raising their offspring by other ‘lower-ranked Kookaburras’ This species is the largest Kingfisher species in the world. There are 10 species of Kingfisher in Australia.”
“The Blue-winged Kookaburras is slightly smaller and inhabits Northern and Western Australia. Their call is a less pleasant guttural call. They are easily separated where the ranges overlap as the Blue-Winged species has a pale plainer head and also has much more blue in the wing and tail. Both species will prey on Lizards, invertebrates and even small birds. Neither species are generally associated with Water but on occasions do take prey items from the water’s surface, such as frogs.”
Watch these hand-picked videos next on TKSST:
• The “Laughing” Kookaburra
• The Kingfisher hunts for fish on the River Shannon
• The kingfisher’s gaze stabilization
• Inside a Kingfisher Nest
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