The Cackling Kookaburras of Western Australia

One of the most iconic sounds of Australia is the call of the kookaburra! I’ve heard it so many times on films or tv shows set in Australia, but to hear it in real life is quite a different experience! I was lucky enough to see and connect with this extraordinary bird on my trip to Western Australia.

My first sighting was such a thrill! I was walking in Queen’s Park in Perth and witnessed a kookaburra being mobbed by a smaller bird. This little bird appeared to be riding on the back of the kookaburra, in an attempt to drive him away from where their nest was. I sat and watched the kookaburra as he sat in a tree, trying to appear nonchalant. Each time he swooped from the tree, he was mobbed by another bird.

Kookaburra are a large species of the kingfisher family and are mainly carnivorous birds, eating young birds, mice, snakes, insects and small reptiles. So, it was no surprise that the other birds were on high alert, especially as there were some young birds around, including ducklings.

The kookaburra was a much larger bird than I had expected him to be. He was around 20 inches long and really quite a majestic looking bird, with a large head, a large beak, large eyes and a brilliant blue flash on his side. When one stops to look at you, you take notice!

I reached out to this kookaburra with animal communication and although he didn’t say much at all, he did share how he was feeling. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed by being mobbed so intensely and he was feeling pinned down in a small tree, when he wanted to get to a taller tree to be above the birds that were mobbing him. He had lost interest in looking for food and wanted to be away from all the activity. I sent him a little healing, which he accepted.

I was lucky enough to see kookaburras in each area of Western Australia that I visited, but when I arrived in the Margaret River region to glamp on an organic olive farm, the encounters became much more frequent and I was able to get much closer to them and really connect with their energy.

I realised that they are really quite shy birds and because of their reputation, I was expecting them to feel and behave more like raucous and confident magpies! At the lightest touch of animal communication, they would fly away and I quickly learned to calm down my excitement when I saw one!

When I connect with wild animals or animals who are timid or afraid, I bring my energy levels down to a very calm and quiet level. I have found that it works really well if I imagine that I’m stepping back, away from the animal, with my head bowed and my hands over my heart. I allow myself to “just be” quiet energy and love and this seems to give an animal space to approach me, whilst feeling safe to do so.

With the kookaburras this need for a calm and quiet approach was magnified and I think it’s because they live in a very rural area and they don’t have much interaction with people. I found that it was easier for the kookaburras if I didn’t look directly at them, either with my physical or intuitive gaze.

I also found that the kookaburras responded more freely if I simply asked them how they were. I received a variety of short responses over the course of a week; “busy”, “sleepy”, “hungry” and “dreamy”. The bird who said “sleepy”, was resting on a low branch and had his eyes closed when I first noticed him. The one who said, “dreamy”, was gazing out over the lake at dusk.

I had the strong sense of a totem animal when I connected with a kookaburra. I sensed deep wisdom and knowing from this bird. It was a beautiful experience just to sit with the energy of a kookaburra and “just be”. For me this was what was being encouraged and I received deep healing and a sense of deep peace on a soul level.

The interesting contrast with these birds, was that the kookaburra were extremely vocal at dusk and dawn. All sense of shyness dropped away at those times. The noise they were able to generate was truly astonishing. Sleeping in a canvas glamping pod meant that I heard everything as if I was outside and it was extraordinary!

Known locally as “laughing jackasses”, the kookaburras certainly lived up to that name! When they started calling, it was like a low cackle and then their call boomed out, more like the call of a chimpanzee, than that of a bird. The volume that just one bird could create was incredible and as there were 3 or 4 calling at once, it was extremely loud and quite unlike any other noise I had ever heard. It had a very eerie, otherworldly quality that I will never forget and I was left with the impression that I may have touched on what it sounded like to walk the earth at the time that the dinosaurs roamed!