Kookaburras are almost exclusively carnivorous, eating mice, snakes, insects, small reptiles, and the young of other birds. Unlike many other kingfishers, they rarely eat fish, although they have been known to take goldfish from garden ponds. In zoos, they are usually fed food suitable for birds of prey.
Although most birds will accept handouts and take meat from barbecues, feeding kookaburras ground beef or pet food is not advised, because they do not include enough calcium and roughage.
Kookaburras are usually seen waiting for their prey on powerlines or low tree branches. When they see their prey they dive down and grab them with their strong beak. If the prey is small it will be eaten whole, but if the prey is larger then the kookaburra bashes it against a tree or the ground to make it softer and easier to eat.
They are territorial, except for the rufous-bellied, which often live with their young from the previous season. They often sing as a chorus to mark their territory. A Kookaburra’s diet includes lizards, snakes, frogs, rodents, beetles, worms, bugs, and other small mammals.
They live in sclerophyll woodland and open forests, in almost any area with trees large enough to hold the nests and open patches with hunting areas. The kookaburras are declining in population because of predators, lack of prey, and the environment.
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