Kookaburra larger group known as "kingfishers", kookaburras are not closely associated with water. The genus "Dacelo" was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in 1815. The type species is the laughing kookaburra. The name "Dacelo" is an anagram of "Alcedo", the Latin word for a kingfisher. A molecular study published in 2017 found that the genus "Dacelo", as currently defined, is paraphyletic. The shovel-billed kookaburra in the monotypic genus "Clytoceyx" sits within "Dacelo". Four species of kookaburra can be found in Australia, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Kookaburras are sexually dimorphic. This is noticeable in the blue-winged and
Birds of Boigu, Saibai and Dauan Islands (Torres Strait) is a smaller but higher granite island. From an Australian birder's perspective, local bird specialities include grey-headed goshawk, Gurney's eagle, rufous-bellied kookaburra, collared imperial-pigeon, orange-bellied fruit-dove, Papuan needletail, red-capped flowerpecker, streak-headed mannikin and singing starling. Access to these islands is not easy. Permission to visit is required from the island councils. The few birders who visit, do so on pre-organised trips by chartered yacht or, occasionally, on day-trips by chartered light aircraft. Saibai and Boigu have airstrips. The following list is annotated with initials indicating which species have been recorded on the three islands. Because these islands have not been