In my friend's backyard there is a family of Kookaburras that has lived here for about 15 years. They are beautiful birds, but can be a nuisance because they will dive into their fish pond and eat the largest fish. As a consequence, they have to cover the pond with mesh to save the fish.These birds are only found in Australia and one of the most interesting things about them is that their call sounds like they are laughing. The main purpose of the kookaburra's call is to let other birds know of its territory and boundaries.
A kookaburra lives in one place for most of its life. It also mates for life. Kookaburras use their strong beaks to catch prey, including fish, small snakes, lizards, rodents, worms, beetles and other insects.
To catch its food, the kookaburra uses a wait-and-pounce technique, taking up a post with a good view. When prey appears, the kookaburra drops straight down from its perch, its wings back, with beak ready to grab its dinner. Large prey items like lizards and snakes are bashed against a tree or a rock, to kill them and soften them up before they are eaten.
Here is a photo of a kookaburra and the sound that it makes.
Bye mates.
(Information about the kookaburra, including the sound, is from the New South Wales Government Department of Environment and Climate Change website: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/plantsanimals/TheLaughingKookaburra.htm)
2 comments:
From the 4th grade:
- Can Kookaburras hurt human’s if humans annoyed her?
- Have you seen a kookaburra yet? - How big are they, and what do they eat?
- How long do kookaburras live?
- Why do kookaburras sound like they are laughing?
- What do you think the kookaburra sounds like?
- How do you keep hearing different animals all the time? I love the bird and the frog sounds!
- What does a kookaburra eat?
- What type of snakes do they eat?
I think that kookaburras stay away from humans as much as possible, so it will be difficult to annoy them. They stay high up in trees or somewhere where they can see things and get away. The other day I saw one in the trees when I was swimming in a pool and as soon as we started making sounds and pointing at it, it flew away.
The are not very big, maybe about as big as a crow. I'd say about a foot tall at most.
I read in a website that they can live up to 20 years.
I think the sound they make is sometimes like a monkey and sometimes like laughter.
It's not that I am hearing many animals, it's that I am writing about animals that are different, and they just happen to make sounds. For example, in California there are deer, possums, skunks, etc. Here you see frogs, kookaburras, butcher birds, and large lizards.
I've already written about what they eat in the blog. About what type of snakes, I'd say any kind they can knock off a tree.
Good questions. If you want to know more, you can always Google "kookaburra" and see what you get.
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