lirralirra

Listening to the cheerful laughter of this iconic species is pretty magical. Today’s images show the back (beautifully fluffed), the front and a couple of extreme close-up portraits of the Laughing Kookaburra that has been busy foraging in my garden this week.

I love the photograph above and removed some distracting branches, which I don’t usually attempt. I really like the way its head feathers and wings are fluffed as it landed on the branch. The white areas on its wings aren’t usually this noticeable when kookas are perched.

Kookaburras forage by perching and pouncing. It’s fascinating to watch them, especially as they often fly several metres from their perch to capture whatever bug or reptile they spotted on the ground. This shot made me smile because of the little blade of grass caught in its bill when it returned to its perch.

Sometimes a kooka will keep returning to the same perch but pickings must have been slim and this bird kept trying different spots.

Kooka portraits can be stunning, their markings are quite magnificent. Adult kookaburras have creamy-white lower bills while youngsters bills are black – this bird looks as though the transition to adulthood is almost complete.

The shot above is very typical of their pose when they’ve spotted something moving amongst the leaf litter or grasses.

This week’s photographs were all taken a couple of days ago, during the same session.

Happy birding, Kim

PS I’m thinking of two people in my family who especially love kookas, one turned 90 earlier this year while the other is in primary school – I hope everyone else loves them too.

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