Kookaburra

As reported by Oliver, several small shipments of the laughing kookaburra were liberated between 1866 and 1880 but none survived except those placed on Kawau Island by Sir George Grey.

The kookaburra is most famed for its laugh which is heard at sunrise and sundown. It is a wild chorus given from the tops of trees where the birds congregate at night.

The kookaburra in its native country of Australia feeds on lizards, snakes, small mammals and large insects. Snakes are taken to a perch on a tree and battered until they are dead, or they are dropped several times from a height to the ground.

The nest is placed in a hollow tree where it may lay four or five eggs.

—  Wairarapa, 2005.

Taxonomy
Kingdom:
Animalia.
Phylum:
Chordata.
Class:
Aves.
Order:
Coraciiformes.
Family:
Alcedinidae.
Genera:
Dacelo.
Species:
novaeguineae.
Sub Species:
novaeguineae.

Other common names:  — 

Laughing jackass, laughing kookaburra

Description:  — 

Introduced bird

45 cm., 350 g., large black and yellow bill, brown with black bars, redish tail, pale head ans underparts.

Where to find:  — 

Few in number, Kawau Island and north of Auckland.

Poetry:  — 

Why the Jackass Laughs

The Boastful Crow and the Laughing Jack
Were telling tales of the outer back:
“I’ve just been travelling far and wide,
At the back of Bourke and the Queensland side;
There isn’t a bird in the bush can go
As far as me,” said the old black crow.
“There isn’t a bird in the bush can fly
A course as straight or a course as high.
Higher than human eyesight goes.

There’s sometimes clouds — but there's always crows,
Drifting along for a scent of blood
Or a smell of smoke or a sign of flood.
For never a bird or a beast has been
With a sight as strong or a scent as keen.
At fires and floods I’m the first about,
For then the lizards and mice run out:
And I make my swoop — and that’s all they know —
I’m a whale on mice,” said the Boastful Crow.

The Bee-birds over the homestead flew
And told each other the long day through
“The cold has come, we must take the track.”
“Now, I’ll make you a bet,” said the Laughing Jack,
“Of a hundred mice, that you dare not go
With the little Bee-birds, by Boastful Crow.”

Said the Boastful Crow, “I could take my ease
And fly with little green birds like these.
If they went flat out and they did their best
I could have a smoke and could take a rest.”
And he asked of the Bee-birds circling round:
“Now, where do you spike-tails think you’re bound?”
“We leave tonight, and our present plan
is to go straight on till we reach Japan.

“Every year, on the self-same day, We call our children and start away,
Twittering, travelling day and night,
Over the ocean we take our flight;
And we rest a day on some lonely isles
Or we beg a ride for a hundred miles
On a steamer’s deck, and away we go:
We hope you’ll come with us, Mister Crow.”

But the old black crow was extremely sad.
Said he: “I reckon you're raving mad
To talk of travelling night and day,
And how in the world do you find your way?”
And the Bee-birds answered him, “If you please,
That’s one of our own great mysteries”.

Now these things chanced in the long ago
And explain the fact, which no doubt you know,
That every jackass high and low
Will always laugh when he sees a crow.

 — Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson

Illustration description: — 

 

Gould, John, Birds of Australia, 1840-48.

Reference(s): — 

 

Heather, B., & Robertson, H., Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand, 2000.

Oliver, W.R.B., New Zealand Birds, 1955.

Page date & version: — 

 

Monday, 26 May 2014; ver2009v1

 
 
 

©  2005    Narena Olliver,    new zealand birds limited,     Greytown, New Zealand.