- Dacelo leachii
Identification
40 cm
- Light iris
- Grey legs and feet
- Head: creamy-white with brown streaks
- Bill: dark above and yellowy below
- Brown back
- Silver grey underparts
- White throat
- Blue rump
- Mainly blue wings
Male - blue tail
Female - tail barred rufous and black
Similar Species
Can be told from the Laughing Kookaburra by the creamy-white head, blue rump and light eye, and from the male, by the blue tail (both sexes have brown tails in Laughing Kookaburra).
Distribution
Southern New Guinea and northern Australia.
Taxonomy
Subspecies[1]
There are 4 subspecies:
- D. l. intermedia:
- Southern New Guinea (Mimika River to Amazon Bay)
- South-western Irian Jaya (Mimika River to Merauke District)
- D. l. occidentalis:
- Northwest Australia (Hamersley and Pilbara regions)
- D. l. cervina:
- Melville island and adjacent humid coastal Northern Territory
- D. l. leachii:
- Northern Australia from northern Western Australia east to southeastern Queensland
Habitat
Eucalypt woods and swamps.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet includes snakes, lizards, large insects, small mammals and small birds.
Breeding
They nest in tree hollow or tree termite nests. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Avibase
- Wikipedia
- Birdwatching Australia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Blue-winged Kookaburra. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-winged_Kookaburra
External Links
Search the Gallery using the scientific name:
Search the Gallery using the common name:
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
