This raucous species replaces the Laughing Kookaburra in the NT. This is a female with a rusty barred tail. Males have an all blue tail. Adults such as this have a white eye seeming to give a cold stare look. Like the Laughing Kookaburra, this species has a social breeding strategy with none to several auxiliary helpers for each dominant breeding pair. This is presumably the darker headed northern subspecies D. l. leachii; although D. l. cervina occurs nearby on the coast. It reportedly has a darker back and a more buffy breast. However some authors (e.g. IOC) question the validity of D. l. cervina and the validity of other proposed subspecies remains controversial
Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LZ5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter)