Fauna of Australia group of endemic parrots, order Psittaciformes. Australian parrots comprise a sixth of the world's parrots, including many cockatoos and galahs. The kookaburra is the largest species of the kingfisher family, known for its call, which sounds uncannily like loud, echoing human laughter. The passerines of Australia, also known as songbirds or perching birds, include wrens, robins, the magpie group, thornbills, pardalotes, the huge honeyeater family, treecreepers, lyrebirds, birds of paradise and bowerbirds. The satin bowerbird has attracted the interest of evolutionary psychologists; it has a complex courtship ritual in which the male creates a bower filled with blue, shiny items
Maria's bird-of-paradise Maria's bird-of-paradise Maria's bird-of-paradise, also known as Frau Reichenow's bird-of-paradise or Mrs. Reichenow's bird-of-paradise, is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae that is a presumptive hybrid species between an emperor bird-of-paradise and raggiana bird-of-paradise. It was named for the wife of the describer, German ornithologist Anton Reichenow. Its measurements are largely intermediate between those of the parent taxa. It was named as a supposed new species in 1894 before being largely accepted as a hybrid in the early 20th century. At least six adult male and one female specimens are known, from Sattelberg and the Finisterre Range of the Huon