Last week I was sitting outside watching the last light of day slip over the edge of the world when I heard a maniacal cackle from the trees above me. First a croaky, throaty chuckle, then a deep rattle as annoying and impossible to ignore as a kid running a stick along a corrugated-iron fence.

I’d not heard Blue-winged Kookaburras call at close quarters for some time–they don’t live near where I do in the Darwin suburbs–but I’d seen a few around where I was staying on the outskirts of Katherine and was well-pleased to hear the calls of a family home to roost for the evening above my cabin.

But what I’d forgotten was just how raucous they can get and for the next ten minutes or so the calls of not only the family above me but those occupying nearby territories drowned out all other sounds.

I don’t know if this species is the loudest bird in the world but I reckon even the FA-18s from the nearby Tindal RAAF base would be hard-pressed to cut through the Blue-winged Kookaburra’s cacophonous clatter at close quarters. These guys just don’t give a shit, and have a great time doing it. I particularly like the cheeky chuckles and the sense of simultaneous black humour and sinister intent that so infects these calls that i have recorded for your listening pleasure (?) below.

You can read more about these wonderfully cheeky birds in Sarah Legge’s Kookaburra: King of the Bush. And here is their evening chorus.

Blue-Winged Kookaburra, Katherine NT. 4 March 2015

Photo: Cool-critters at Tumblr.