By Gigi
Now that we’ve made a crack about some aspects of birds being creepy (see Notebook: Look at the Birdies), we want to redeem ourselves with a gushing blog
entry about one of the cuddliest-looking flyers—the kookaburra. On a recent trip to Sydney, Australia, we saw several up close—at the Taronga Zoo and at the Featherdale Wildlife Park.
Native to Australia and New Guinea, kookaburras are big birds that range from 11- to 17-inches tall and sport an assortment of fluffy feathers (hence, the cuddliness). There are four known species of kookaburras: rufous-bellied, spangled, blue-winged and laughing.
They are terrestrial kingfishers, which means they are land-loving and live anywhere from humid forests to arid savannas. However, they tend to be lazy and can be found in suburban and residential areas near running water and where food is easy to come by.
Kookaburras are perhaps best known for their call, which sounds like loud, echoing human laughter. OK, maybe that’s a little creepy. And, to file under mildly creepy, kookaburras are carnivorous, eating lizards, snakes, insects, mice, other small birds and raw—or cooked—meat. The most social of them will go near and accept food from humans, so, as they say in Oz, don’t leave the barbie unattended.