BELATED BIRD OF THE WEEK

 BLUE WINGED KOOKABURRA

Most English-speaking people over the age of 50 would be familiar with the sound, if not the appearance, of Australia’s Laughing Kookaburra.

In the imaginings of a few generations of Hollywood sound engineers Australia’s Laughing Kookaburra was part of the exotic soundscape that helped conjure a deepest darkest Africa, that was in turn tamed by a single bare chested white man, one Lord Greystoke or more commonly known as Tarzan.

So the Laughing Kookaburra, has a name which is an onomatopoeia based on its call, like the [Eurasian] Cuckoo.

The appearance of the Kookaburra is well known, I would suspect, to every single Australian as it is a large bird [the world’s largest Kingfisher], loud [its chuckling laughter often coming from multiple birds], common and conspicuous [it is found in every capital city in the continent save Darwin].

HOWEVER the Laughing Kookaburra is NOT the Bird of the Week.

But is close relative the slightly smaller lesser known, northern cousin – the Blue winged Kookaburra is!

Our Bird of the Week is a large, loud conspicuous specie too. It is immediately recognisable as a Kookaburra. It has, as its name suggests blue wings. It has a large pale head, lacking the chocolate mask of the Laughing and its bill is huge.

Here on the Sunshine Coast it is a very rare visitor; usually occurring further north.