Kookaburras

All 2 species of kookaburras on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 4 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• Its call, like human laughter, traditionally marks dawn and dusk, and family groups sing it together to defend their territory.

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• Its collective laughter at dawn is a territorial marker, not an expression of merriment: the whole group performs it in chorus and neighbouring groups answer, forming a chain that runs through the forest.

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• It is the largest kingfisher in the world and almost never fishes: it hunts reptiles, insects and rodents on land, and is famous for killing venomous snakes by dropping them from the air.

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• It lives in cooperative family groups, where young birds from earlier broods help their parents feed the new chicks before striking out on their own.

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• Its call is not the clean laughter of the laughing kookaburra but a harsh, broken howling that Australians describe as the barking of a run-over dog: far less musical and a good deal more unsettling.

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• It frequently nests inside arboreal termite mounds: it digs a chamber in the live termite nest, and the termites seal the wound around it and give the chicks a stable temperature.

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Ecosystems