Species Spotlight: the kookaburra

It opens like a horror movie. A group of campers visiting Australia settle down for the night around a campfire after a long day of exploring the subtropical rainforest of southeast Queensland. As one of them tells a ghost story, an eerie laugh echoes through the forest. Scared, the campers huddle close together, pointing their flashlights into the trees around them. The laughing sound grows louder and louder, until a small bird emerges from the foliage.

Kookaburras are a species of bird native to Australia and the surrounding islands. They are around the size of a crow, capable of flight, and are quite loud. Their vocalizations include calls of “koo-koo-koo-kaa-kaa” (which is where the name “kookaburra” comes from) and a call that sounds like a man chuckling. According to Aboriginal Australian legend, the kookaburra laughs to happily welcome the sun, but the real reason for the sound is a lot less cheerful. A 1987 study from the journal EMU, an Australian ornithology research publication, found that the laughing sound is actually used to deter predators, guard family members, and establish social hierarchy. 

Kookaburras live in large roosts with multiple “helper” birds assisting a breeding pair in raising their fledglings. The breeding pair are at the top of the hierarchy, securing the best food and safest spots. Along with the comfort of safe, shady places to sleep and consistent meals, the breeding pair are also the only ones allowed to make the laughing song during the daytime. If any other bird wants to laugh during the day, it is seen as a challenge to the main pair, and the bird will be attacked. The helper kookaburras can only make calls during dawn and dusk, where they join in loud group calls to assert their territorial borders. 

The diet of a kookaburra is typical of their family species, the kingfisher. They consume insects, worms, and crustaceans, along with small mammals and snakes. The kingfishers are hunters; similarly, the kookaburra hunts prey by perching on a branch above it, then diving down to catch it. Once prey is caught, the bird hits it on the branch multiple times, ensuring the food is dead before swallowing it. The kookaburra demonstrates this tactic even when held in captivity, regardless of whether their food is alive, dead, or processed.

There are two major types of kookaburra: the blue-winged kookaburra and the laughing kookaburra. Surprisingly, they both have blue on their wings and make a laughing sound. The major difference between them is their size and social mannerisms. The blue-winged kookaburra is a lot smaller than the laughing kookaburra and makes up for its size by traveling in larger groups. Meanwhile, the laughing kookaburra mainly lives in pairs, with each pair’s offspring forming their “helper” group. Adding on, the blue-winged kookaburra lives in the northwestern region, while the laughing kookaburra lives in the southeastern region. The laughing kookaburra is the more popular of the two, as the bird is considered one of Australia’s national symbols.

Neither blue-winged kookaburras nor laughing kookaburras are in danger of extinction from human activity, with both birds classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as least concern for extinction. However, the birds face habitat loss from Australia’s wildfires, destroying their nesting and feeding sites.

Kookaburras, although well known for their laughing sound and their prominence in Australia’s national identity, still have some unsolved mysteries about their lifestyles. More research can provide a better understanding of the bird and how our actions may be affecting their populations. Next time you find yourself hallucinating a creepy laugh in a dark Australian forest, it might just be a kookaburra hiding in the trees!