Blue-winged Kookaburra

Day 16 - Katherine Gorge

We spotted this guy while waiting to board our boat trip up the Katherine River to Katherine Gorge.

I had heard Blue-winged Kookaburras during a trip to Cape York many years ago but had only caught a fleeting glimpse of one. They aren't all that common and are generally hard to spot so I was EXTREMELY happy to have got this shot.

The Blue-winged Kookaburra is slightly smaller than its close relative, the Laughing Kookaburra, and lives in New Guinea and the wet tropics of Australia. They are a noisy species and "make a range of raucous sounds including maniacal cackles, guttural squawks and mechanical laughing."

You can hear them here https://wildambience.com/wildlife-sounds/blue-winged-kookaburra/

For O/S 365ers, we have now left the desert and semi arid region of Oz and are in the tropical savannah region

For the background to this posting, see https://365project.org/terryliv/365-year-3/2021-04-14

[Lou Ann]

They are such interesting looking birds. This is a great capture.

[Diana]

Fabulous shot of this lovely looking bird.

[Peter]

A real Australian icon beautifully captured Terry:)

[KV]

Lovely focus… such a beautiful and unique looking bird.

[KoalaGardens🐨]

ahh nice, that distinctive pale eye and no stripe setting them apart from our common laughing kooka. great cpature!

[Issi Bannerman]

My favourite bird.

[Poppo Livy]

@koalagardens It was actually quite funny. we were in the cafe/tourist centre at the gorge and I was running around all excited taking photos and everyone was looking at me very suspiciously. I was trying to tell them it wasn't an ordinary Kookaburra but a Blue-winged Kookaburra which just made them even more suspicious. I gave up on them in the end. LOL

[KoalaGardens🐨]

@terryliv well it really excited me as I've not seen one wild yet and saw what it was straight up and went ooooooooooh

[Denise Wood]

Wow! fav

[Elisabeth Sæter]

Great shot