Laughing kookaburra hands without warning, by swooping in from a distance. People often feed them pieces of raw meat. Laughing Kookaburras are often kept in zoos. The kookaburra is also the subject of a popular Australian children's song, the "Kookaburra" which was written by Marion Sinclair in 1934. Recordings of this bird have been edited into Hollywood movies for decades - usually in jungle settings - beginning with the Tarzan series in the 1930s, and more recently in the film "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997). Laughing kookaburra The laughing kookaburra ("Dacelo novaeguineae") is a bird in the kingfisher subfamily Halcyoninae. It
Laughing kookaburra worms, snakes and are known to take goldfish out of garden ponds. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classed the laughing kookaburra as a species of least concern as it has a huge range and large population, with no widespread threats. The laughing kookaburra was first described and illustrated (in black and white) by the French naturalist and explorer Pierre Sonnerat in his "Voyage à la nouvelle Guinée" which was published in 1776. He claimed to have seen the bird in New Guinea. In fact Sonnerat never visited New Guinea and the laughing kookaburra does not occur