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
Laughing kookaburra the early years of the 20th century "kookaburra" was included as an alternative name in ornithological publications but it was not until 1926 in the second edition of the "Official Checklist of Birds of Australia" that the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union officially adopted the name "laughing kookaburra". The name comes from Wiradhuri, an Aboriginal language now effectively extinct. The genus "Dacelo" contains four kookaburra species of which the rufous-bellied kookaburra and the spangled kookaburra are restricted to New Guinea and islands in the Torres Straits. The blue-winged kookaburra and the laughing kookaburra are both widespread in Australia. Two subspecies are