Wild Bird Wednesday 225 - Blue-winged Kookaburra

This week I continue with another kingfisher.  Rather than the reasonably familiar Laughing Kookaburra, this weeks bird is the Blue-winged Kookaburra.

The Blue-winged Kookaburra is in the same genus as the Laughing and carries the name Dacelo leachii.  The first part of the name is an anagram of the the genus name of the Kingfisher that is found in the UK and the second part for a well known working in the British Museum.  The 'joke' in the first part of the name drew the wrath of none other than Mr. C Darwin who said (so I am led to believe) that 'such verbal trifling is in very bad taste'!  This may say rather more than is commonly known about Mr. D's sense of humour!

The Blue-winged Kookaburra is found across most of the northern coastal Australia and its range extends about halfway down the east coast.  As a result I only see this bird if I am a rather long way from home.

This Kookaburra is about 40cm long, making it a little smaller than the Laughing.  The voice of this bird is remarkable - with the description in one of my guides going like this: 'Appalling: a guttural  'klock, klock, developing into a cacophony of mechanical squawks'.  A nightingale it is not!

The next set of pictures show a male bird (I am unsure about the ones above) - you can tell this by his blue tail.

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