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
Greater bird-of-paradise Greater bird-of-paradise The greater bird-of-paradise ("Paradisaea apoda") is a bird-of-paradise in the genus "Paradisaea". Carl Linnaeus named the species "Paradisaea apoda", or "legless bird-of-paradise", because early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without wings or feet by natives; this led to the misconception that these birds were beautiful visitors from paradise that were kept aloft by their plumes and never touched the earth until death. The greater bird-of-paradise is the largest member in the genus "Paradisaea", with males measuring up to (excluding the long twin tail wires). The female is smaller, at only . The plumage of this species is