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Big Voices of the Bush
Kookaburras declare their territories
On the morning of 27 August 1883, people on the island of Rodrigues in the western Indian Ocean thought they heard cannon-fire from ships moored just offshore. At the same time, the citizens of Perth were confused by a distant booming sound. They would all soon discover that the noise had been caused by Krakatoa, a volcano thousands of kilometres away in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. The eruption of Krakatoa (Krakatau) was — and remains — the loudest sound ever heard by humans in the modern era.
But the volume of Krakatoa is nothing compared to the call of the Laughing Kookaburra. Native to eastern Australia, this giant kingfisher is so loud that it can be heard 14,000 kilometres away in the South American rainforest. Here it is on the soundtrack of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It has been heard even further away — in Dracula’s territory of Romania. It is a noisy bird.
Less well-known but equally loud is Australia’s second* species of kookaburra — the Blue-winged Kookaburra. It occurs across…
