Is a Kookaburra a Kingfisher? Meet the Fish-Free Kingfishers

What makes a kookaburra a kingfisher?

Kingfishers share a distinctive body plan, and kookaburras have all of it. They have a large head, a long, strong, pointed bill, short legs and a stocky body. Their feet are small and weak, with the front toes partly joined at the base, a feature found throughout the family and its relatives.

They also hunt like most kingfishers: by waiting on a perch and dropping onto prey. And like other kingfishers, they nest in cavities. The laughing kookaburra uses tree hollows and holes dug into termite mounds, while many river kingfishers dig tunnels in earth banks.

DNA studies confirm what the anatomy suggests. Kookaburras sit firmly inside the kingfisher family tree, close to other tree kingfishers of Australasia such as the sacred kingfisher and forest kingfisher.

The three groups of kingfishers

The kingfisher family contains roughly 115–120 species worldwide, divided into three subfamilies. Each group has its own typical lifestyle, though there are exceptions.

Some taxonomists treat the three subfamilies as separate families. Either way, kookaburras belong with the tree kingfishers, and no species in that group is a specialist fish-eater.

The bill shape gives a clue to each lifestyle. Fishing kingfishers tend to have long, narrow, flattened bills that slip cleanly into water. Land-hunting tree kingfishers usually have broader, heavier bills for grabbing and crushing prey on the ground. The kookaburra’s thick bill is typical of a land hunter.

Kingfishers that do not fish

The idea that every kingfisher fishes comes from Europe and North America. There, the most familiar species are fish-eaters: the common kingfisher of European rivers and the belted kingfisher of North American lakes. Both plunge headfirst into water from a perch, as explained in How do kingfishers catch fish?

Worldwide the picture is different. More than half of all kingfisher species live in forests, and many live far from water. They feed on insects, spiders, worms, lizards, frogs and small mammals. Some even live in dry country; the red-backed kingfisher of inland Australia inhabits arid scrub.

Kookaburras are the best-known land kingfishers. A laughing kookaburra may take a small fish from shallow water, but its diet is overwhelmingly land animals. Its full menu is described in What do kookaburras eat?

How many kookaburra species are there?

Four kookaburra species in the genus Dacelo have traditionally been recognized:

• Laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae): eastern Australia, introduced to southwest Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.
• Blue-winged kookaburra (Dacelo leachii): northern and northeastern Australia and southern New Guinea; it has a pale eye and much more blue.
• Spangled kookaburra (Dacelo tyro): southern New Guinea and the Aru Islands.
• Rufous-bellied kookaburra (Dacelo gaudichaud): lowland forests of New Guinea.

A fifth bird, the shovel-billed kookaburra of New Guinea, was long placed in its own genus. After a 2017 DNA study showed it belongs among the kookaburras, the International Ornithological Committee moved it into Dacelo in 2023. It uses its broad bill to dig in mud for earthworms and other prey.

Only the laughing and blue-winged kookaburras live in Australia, and their ranges overlap in eastern Queensland. All kookaburras are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

The largest kingfisher in the world

The laughing kookaburra is the heaviest kingfisher. Adults are 41–47 cm (16–19 in) long and weigh about 190–465 g (7–16 oz), with females usually heavier than males. Africa’s giant kingfisher is roughly as long, at 42–46 cm (17–18 in), but it is lighter, usually around 255–426 g (9–15 oz).

At the other extreme, the African dwarf kingfisher is only about 10 cm (4 in) long and weighs around 9–12 g (less than half an ounce). That means the biggest kookaburras weigh around 40 times as much as the smallest members of their family.

Where the name comes from

The genus name Dacelo is an anagram of Alcedo, the Latin word for kingfisher and the genus of the common kingfisher. The naturalist William Leach chose it in 1815, hinting at the link between the two birds.

Early European settlers in Australia also recognized the family resemblance. Before “kookaburra” became the official name, the bird was known as the “great brown kingfisher” and the “laughing kingfisher,” as well as the more famous “laughing jackass.” The word kookaburra itself comes from guguburra in the Wiradjuri language of New South Wales.