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
Kookaburra III Kookaburra III Kookaburra III (KA 15) was the Australian 12 Metre yacht sailed by Iain Murray in the 1987 America's Cup held off of Fremantle, Australia. She won the Defender Selection and represented Australia in the America's Cup, where she lost to American challenger Dennis Conner and his "Stars & Stripes 87". Preparing for the defense of the America's Cup, Alan Bond expressed concerns that there was a lack of adequate competition in Australia to prepare for the event. Business rival Kevin Parry took him up on the challenge. Gathering together top sailors from across Australia, Parry's Taskforce 87 syndicate