Species group · Birds

Kookaburras

WAnimals has 2 species of kookaburra, all in the family Alcedinidae.

2 species

1 family

4 countries

37 parks

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 2.

All 2 species of kookaburras on WAnimals

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

Laughing Kookaburra

Dacelo novaeguineae

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Dacelo leachii

2 Least Concern

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

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

Its call, like human laughter, traditionally marks dawn and dusk, and family groups sing it together to defend their territory.
From Laughing Kookaburra
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.
From Laughing Kookaburra
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.
From Laughing Kookaburra
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.
From Blue-winged Kookaburra
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.
From Blue-winged Kookaburra
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.
From Blue-winged Kookaburra