king of the bush

The Illawarra is home to a rare laughing kookaburra

Words & image Ralph Stadus

Nothing is as Aussie as the magical echo of a group of kookaburras laughing in the gum trees. But did you know the laughing is actually their way of marking the boundaries of their territory? To drive off interlopers, kookaburras gather together and out laugh them.

In the Illawarra, we are lucky to home an abundance of native wildlife. And one of our more unique residents is the incredible and very rare white laughing kookaburra, which has often been mistaken for having albinism. Thankfully, that’s not the case as birds with albinism don’t live long in the wild due to the decreased eyesight. These white kookas have another very rare genetic mutation called leucisim, which only affects the bird’s feathers, beaks and in extreme cases skin scales. The birds in the Illawarra all seem healthy and live in family groups with normal coloured laughing kookaburras.

Kooaburras live in intergenerational family groups, so most likely the leucisim gene is being passed on down family lines. The dynamic in kookaburra family groups is interesting, too – only the senior pair breed, and all offspring stay in the family group, even as adults. As all new parents would appreciate, the kookas have it sorted – plenty of willing helpers for those gorgeous, but ever-so demanding newborns!

One distinctive feature of leucism is that the pattern on every kookaburra is slightly different, which makes them easy to identify. The Illawarra Birders have been collecting photos of our local white kookaburras and so far have counted five individual birds over the past few years. When you are out and about, keep an ear and eye open for them. Good locations to spot the white kookaburra are Killalea State Park and Blackout Forest Reserve at Shellharbour – they like drier woodland areas with large trees.

If you’re interested in learning more, head to illawarrabirders.org