Key Facts

Class: Aves
Order: Coraciiformes
Family: Halcyonidae (Tree Kingfishers)
Genus and Species: Dacelo novaeguineae

The Kingfisher Family Tree

The kingfishers generally are a barrel shaped bird with reasonably short tails and quite colourful plumage, with telltale features of large heads and large bills for their size. Another interesting feature is their syndactylous toes, which means that the outer and middle toes are partly fused. They have short legs and weak feet.

There are 90 species of kingfisher worldwide, 10 are found in Australia. Some examples of these to be found in the Sunshine Coast region are the Laughing Kookaburra, Azure Kingfisher, Forest Kingfisher, Sacred Kingfisher and Collared Kingfisher, and the Blue Winged Kookaburra

The largest Kingfisher in the World

The Laughing Kookaburra is the largest in the world, of the kingfisher family and probably the most well known in Australia. His cousin the Blue Winged Kookaburra is the second largest. The size of an adult kookaburra varies from 400 to 470mm (tip of beak to end of tail) with weights of 300 to 450grams common. Their life span in the wild is around 12 to 15 years, and can live up to 25 years in captivity, and they do not breed until 3 or 4 years old.

A "Mister Mum" of the Bird World

Kookaburra's are very family oriented and live in groups with a dominant breading pair, adult “helpers” non-breeders both male and female, and juveniles. The helpers can be offspring of the breeding pair or they can be adopted into the clan and they assist with incubation of eggs, feeding of babies and juveniles as well as guarding and defending territory. The clan is arranged in a strict hierarchy and anyone breaching this is either subdued by dominant pair, or forced to leave the clan.

The dominant female usually lays three eggs, and these are one to two days apart. The result is that a normal brood is two or three fledged juveniles.

Another interesting point is that clans with mostly male helpers tend to be more successful, wether this is due to better defence of territory or better feeding of young is unknown.

A Notorious Snake Catcher?

Kookaburras get most of the moisture they need from the blood of their prey, and they aren't fussy eaters, devouring insects, worms, spiders, frogs, small birds and nestlings, lizards & small goannas, and the odd small snake. The popular notion that the kookaburra is a notorious snake killer is a myth, they eat an occasional small snake, but the majority of their diet is lizards, insects and worms. This myth is the reason behind the introduction of laughing kookaburras into W.A in 1897, and Tasmania in 1905, by the first white settlers in Australia. They thought the kookaburras would get rid of “pests” like venomous snakes.

The kookaburra is an ambush predator, sitting up high on a favourable perch watching for prey, then diving down and grabbing the prey in their beak with unerring accuracy.

A Bird in a Dogfight!

They are very stoic birds and fairly territorial, often having standoffs with neighbours, with individuals from each clan taking turns to invade the others territory and to be chased out again. This can be seen by two kookaburras crossing forwards and back again across a boundary, going passed each other like planes in a dogfight. They will attack if the intruder stands his ground, and often end up wrestling around on the ground with beaks locked and feathers flying.

These guys are one of Wilvos favourite birds to care for. They tolerate humans for as long as they have to (during care) and are very patient and cooperate pretty well. Then when well enough, they will bolt at the first opportunity! One of the best sights to see is the re-joining of a rehabilitated kookaburra to their family. We take them back to their known territory, give them a chance to acclimatise & work out where they are, then open the cage door and walk away about 5 metres and wait. The bird will listen and watch their surroundings and when they are confident, they move out of the cage, look for a good perch and fly up to it. Then they will find each other by calls, once they are together they join in a cacophony of cackles and you can sense the joy in their voices. An amazing thing to be a part of, and well worth the effort.