Kookaburra: The Sound of an Australian Morning

Ask anyone overseas what an Australian bird sounds like, and there's a good chance they'll try to imitate a kookaburra's laugh — that rolling, cackling call that's become shorthand for the Australian bush itself.

Photographing kookaburras is a study in stillness. They're perchers by nature — sitting motionless on a fence post or low branch, scanning the ground below for the next lizard, insect, or unlucky small creature to drop on. That stillness is a gift for a photographer; it gives you time to get the composition right, to wait for the head to tilt just so, to catch the moment before the swoop.

What struck me most, building this calendar, was how much character comes through in a bird that barely moves. The heavy beak, the streaked brown-and-white plumage, the slightly comic, slightly wise expression — kookaburras photograph like they're in on the joke.

There's also something deeply nostalgic about them. For a lot of Australians, the kookaburra's call is tied to camping trips, childhood backyards, early mornings before the rest of the house wakes up. A calendar built entirely around this bird isn't just twelve photographs — it's twelve small doses of that familiar, laughing soundtrack. It's the same idea behind all my bird calendars, which I wrote about in One Bird, One Year: Why My Australian Bird Calendars Focus on a Single Species.

The Kookaburras Wall Calendar

The 2027 Personalised Kookaburras Wall Calendar is personalised — pick your start month, language, and holidays — and it's a natural gift for anyone who's ever smiled at that unmistakable call. You'll find it with the rest of my bird calendars.

More Australian Birds

If the kookaburra is your favourite, you might also enjoy the stories behind some of its neighbours: the Australian magpie, the cockatoo, the magpie-lark and the Australian raven.