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 (aircraft) Kookaburra (aircraft) Kookaburra was a Westland Widgeon light aircraft registered G-AUKA. When Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew in the Southern Cross disappeared during the "Coffee Royal" incident in 1929, pilot Keith Anderson and mechanic Bob Hitchcock flew in "Kookaburra" to search for the men. "Kookaburra" departed Richmond, New South Wales on 10 April and headed for the north of Western Australia via Broken Hill, Maree, Oodnadatta and Alice Springs. "Kookaburra" was forced to land in the Tanami desert when the push rod on a valve on number two cylinder loosened, causing a loss of power. Hitchcock adjusted the