Fauna, OM-1, Photography

Laughing Kookaburra

(3 pics) – The Laughing Kookaburra is not native to Tasmania but are now widespread and common. They eat small birds, eggs, lizards, frogs and worms. They can wipe out small birds entirely from some areas and wreak havoc by reducing diversity.

I do love listening to them though, when a group of them start laughing to each other it’s contagious and always brings a smile to my face.
OM System OM-1, Olympus 75-300 f4.8-6.7 II ED MSC – DxO Photolab 5.3

I think he spotted me!
Thanks for visiting, keep on laughing 😀

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TasView (Tone)

Tone Bacon - Tasmanian photographer. tasview.com

21 thoughts on “Laughing Kookaburra”

  2. This post made me smile, It reminds me of
    the song we learned in school SO many years ago:
    “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
    Merry, merry king of the bush is he
    Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra
    Gay your life must be.”
    And they are quite cheeky-looking fellows, yes? 🙂

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    1. He was hanging out in a Silver Wattle tree this time … one that had partly fallen over and broken my top fence :/ I’ve since cut the fallen branch up but not yet mended the fence.

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  4. I follow an account on Instagram that features birds on her balcony near one of the big cities. The Kookaburra is a frequent visitor so I wonder if they flew to Tasmania?

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    1. I’m not too sure John … according to THIS website – “In a 1944 letter to a Tasmanian newspaper, a reader claimed credit for the kookaburras’ arrival, saying he released the birds in 1902 after having the “misfortune to be bitten by a snake”

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      1. Thanks for the link, Tone, very interesting. And, apparently sad too how these birds are displacing native species in Tasmania. All because one guy let loose a flock in 1902? I had assumed the birds made the journey on the wing, but I don’t know how far that is.

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      2. We’re about 350km from the mainland with a few small islands in Bass Strait. It is possible, a few birds migrate every year like the rare/endangered Swift Parrot.

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  5. Great looking birds, did you have to crop the photos, or was the 300mm sufficient?
    That 75-300m seems to perform really well, everything is tack sharp.

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    1. Thanks Marc. Really happy with the lens when there’s enough light, it begins to struggle even on overcast days. These ones are only slightly cropped. I’ve started using DxO Photolab to edit my photos – it’s taken some figuring out to get the best from it, but it’s much better than OM Workspace for de-noise and sharpen so lets me up the ISO to keep the shutter speed fast. I just checked, these ones are ISO 3200, f6.7, 1/1250

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    1. Thanks Sandra, I while just doing a search I glanced that they were introduced into WA too!
      “ookaburras were widely introduced into Tasmania and Western Australia where they breed in tree hollows that would usually be used by parrots and owls, and they prey on small reptiles, mammals and nestlings, thus placing undue pressure on those creatures.”
      SOURCE

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