Kroona, the laughing kookaburra
Also called jackass, laughing jackass
Dacelo novaeguineae
Kook-koo-hoo-haa!
Howdy smilers! I am Kroona the laughing kookaburra. I laugh a lot, and if you visit me and tell a joke, I will laugh at you too.
When several members of our family get together, we form a chorus of laughter — some laughing our normal long laugh, and others doing a short kooo-aa at the same time. If you listen closely you will hear our multiple voices joining in the chorus.
Why do we laugh?
Well, it's not really because someone
tells a good joke. Sometimes our call is to let the rest of the
family know we have been disturbed, or that there are
troublemakers in the area.
Sometimes it is to let other kookaburra groups know that we have settled in this territory.
If another group of kookaburras wants our territory, Boomer (pictured at left) will usually fly against a member of the rival group. Sometimes these jousts result in serious injuries.
What do I eat?
I like water skinks, insects, worms, small snakes, and rodents. Once I mistook an eel for a snake and nearly drowned.
If I'm sitting on a branch and see some prey, I swoop down and grab it. If it's small I eat it whole, but if it's large I bash it against a branch or the ground.
I don't mind it when home owners in the area toss me scraps of meat. I bash that too to get rid of the human's germs on it (just joking). Kook-kook-koo hoo-ha-haa.
What are my likes and dislikes?
I don't like cats and dogs, because
they try to attack me when I swoop down to get a meal. But I do
like big gum trees. Calamvale Creek has
some beautiful gum trees and other trees with high branches
around the water and the parkland. It's a great environment for
kooka kids.
We also like hollows in trees to nest in. When gum trees lose a branch it often creates a perfect home. We sometimes bore a hollow in termite mounds high up in trees. There are a few of those around Calamvale Creek (see picture at right).
When Mother Kooka lays two or three eggs in the hollow between August and January, the rest of the family helps with incubation, protecting the young, and feeding them.
What is our family life like?
Kookaburras
have a wonderfully close family life. When we find a mate we stay
together for life. We all share the parenting duties, and we have
lots of laughs together every day.
That may be why we live so happily together for up to 20 years.
How you can help us
Although we
have fights within our own family (like you humans do), we are
not aggressive toward people. You can help us keep the laughter
coming in several ways.
- We need trees for nesting, and high trees for perching on while we look for prey. Removing big gum trees means we have fewer sites for breeding and searching for our food.
- If you hear us in your area, don't put pesticides around. If we eat the animals or insects you have poisoned, we absorb the poison and it can make us sick or even kill us.
- Don't leave meat scraps out for us if we are not around to take them from you. We can make a good living ourselves, and if we don't come around after you throw your meat out, you may be attracting feral animals.
- Don't be too quick to clean up leaf litter and old logs. We find lots of lizards, worms, and insects breeding there.
Have a happy day. Kook-kook-koo-hoo-haa!
— Kroona the laughing kookaburra