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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Unknown

Kookaburra

Dacelo gigas

Physical Characteristics

  • These birds have a big, cream-white head with a brown eye stripe. The back and wings are usually brown, the wings have some blue. The bill is long and strong with a black top and a bone colored bottom. The tail is reddish brown and black striped.
  • Size of average adult
    • length: 18 inches
    • weight: 1 pound
  • Approximate life span is 20 years.

Diet

  • Wild: snakes, mice, rats, insects, marine crabs, lizards and small birds

Behavior

  • Call sounds like human laughter
  • Does not drink, gets moisture from food
  • Catches food with bill and kills by beating it against a branch or the ground
  • Mates for life
  • Younger offspring of a pair will congregate with the parents and share nesting duties such as incubating the eggs, defending the territory and feeding and protecting younger siblings
  • Reproduction
    • clutch size: usually 2 - 4 white eggs
    • incubation: 24 - 26 days
    • chicks are naked and blind upon hatching, growing full plumage by 27 - 33 days

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: woodlands and open forests
  • Distribution: Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea
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