Nyarima

Laughing Kookaburra

Scientific Name: Dacelo novaeguineae

Also known as: Laughing Jackass, Kookie

Bird Range Map (Shading indicates where the bird is commonly found – no shading indicates this is yet to be added)

Laughing Kookaburra

Scientific Name: Dacelo novaeguineae

Also known as: Laughing Jackass, Kookie

Bird call

Play Bird call

Bird Size

With a body as big as a basketball (~45cm) the Laughing Kookaburra is the biggest of all its sister kingfisher birds in the kingfisher mob.

Bird Features, Colours, Behaviours

This bird is famous for its big laughing song that can be heard loud across any country it is on. The Kookie has beautiful dark brown eyes and wings and its wings have shining blue marks on them and there’s a bit of ochre in its tail colours. Its chest and body is mostly white with its head also white with some brown on the top and extending through its eyes. Some older Kookies have a blue and green patch on their tails closest to their bodies.

The Kookie has a deadly beak that could take off your finger but it’s not the longest beak of all the Kookie brothers! (Blue-winged Kookie is longer). The Kookie is known to take a snag from the fingers of a distracted BBQ’er. Look out!

Bird Social Behaviour

These guys usually hang in a mob with a main couple and then 1-7 other birds that help them out.

Language Area / Centre: Yugambeh | Nation: Bundjalung

Bird name: Gagaru, Gagurim, Gahgun

Story: .

Knowledge from: Clinton Brewer
Knowledge origin: Kombummeri-Ngarangwal

Language Area / Centre: Yugambeh

Bird name: Kagaru

Story: The best known story for Kagaru is around the sequence of bird calls made every morning. The birds wake up and sing the ‘jagoon’ (country) awake. Kagaru is woken by an alarm call from another bird and in response he sings loudly to wake everyone up just before the first light. Other birds then join his call in a sequence of bird calls. A town west of Woodhill in Queensland has been called Kagaru after the Kookaburra.

Knowledge from: Germaine Paulson
Knowledge origin: Mununjali

Language Area / Centre: Ngairgo

Bird name: Guginjala

Story:

Knowledge from: Lance Solomon
Knowledge origin: Monaro

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