What is a kookaburra?

The kookaburra is the largest member of the kingfisher family. Two species live in Australia – blue-winged kookaburras in the north, and laughing kookaburras in the east.

Detailed answer: Many wildlife-lovers come to Australia in search of kangaroos and koalas, but end up with a new favourite animal. Visits to wildlife parks and chance encounters in the wild tend to open the eyes to the rest of Australia’s wildlife.

For some, it might be the marauding emus they fall for. Others go for the snuffling wombats, dainty pademelons or implausibly cute-faced echidnas. Then there are the birds. Strutting, cheeky cockatoos and galahs are a regular companion in the Australian bush.

But then there’s the kookaburra. You’ll probably hear a kookaburra before you see one. They have the name laughing kookaburras for a good reason. Their call sounds like someone chortling away, and it rings through the trees in the early morning.

Laughing kookaburra in Halls Gap, the Grampians, Victoria — What is a kookaburra? Well it looks like this laughing kookaburra in the Grampians, Victoria. But you’ll probably hear it before you see it. Photo courtesy of Visit Victoria.

It’s so distinctive, that you’ll often hear it in films or TV programmes depicting the Australian bush. It’s a useful shorthand in sequences setting the scene.

What is a kookaburra?

But what is a kookaburra? Well, the kookaburra is part of the kingfisher family, and the tree kingfisher sub-family. If you want to drill down as far as genus, they in the Dacelo genus. Crustacean expert William Elford Leach coined that name in 1815.

There are four species of kookaburra living across Australia and New Guinea. Of these, only the blue-winged kookaburra and the laughing kookaburra live in Australia. There’s some overlap in territory, but the blue-winged kookaburra generally lives in the north of the country. You can find it around Brisbane, but usually sticks to the tropics.

Where do laughing kookaburras live?

The laughing kookaburra is the one you’re far more likely to encounter, however. It can be found in the south-west of Western Australia, although it was introduced there. The laughing kookaburra is native to eastern Australia, and can be found along the coast, going inland as far as the deserts.

Despite being part of the kingfisher family, the kookaburra doesn’t spend all that much time hanging around the water. It’s the largest of the kingfisher family, reaching about 45cm in length. As birds go, it’s fairly stout and stocky.

While many Australian creatures are endangered, the kookaburra most certainly is not. They exist in plentiful numbers across eastern Australia, and they’re as happy in parks and gardens as they are in woodland. You’ll not have to venture too far from a city centre to hear that laugh…