The Laughing Kookaburra is the largest of all kingfishers. The iconic laughing call is actually a challenge to neighbours. Kookaburras operate in collectives and form territories. At dawn and dusk they line up on the boundaries and call loudly at rivals. Over time the boundaries change as group strength fluctuates.

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Hear the call:
https://youtu.be/TqdRQxgtZtI?si=RyBKA5gR2VhODGUo

Mammals have two way breathing (in and out). When a bird breathes in, it draws air into sacs below the lungs. Gas exchange occurs in the lungs, and sacs above the lungs take the CO2 rich waste. As they breathe out, they bring the fresh air from the lower sacs into the lungs and the spent air moves into the upper sacs. So they still breathe in and out through the nares and mouth, but are always getting fresh air

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Co-operative breeding is a rare mating system where not all offspring leave the parents and instead remain to help raise siblings. It is significantly more common in Australia and Africa, possibly due to the influence of nest parasites like cuckoos. Helping raise your siblings means you are still passing on your genes as siblings share 25% DNA, but raising a cuckoo passes on none.

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The birds with the weirdest crests are Cock-of-the-rock, two species of Cotinga from South America. They get their name from nesting in rock faces. The males are the only birds with a crest that extends all the way to the bill. Females are of course much more sensible.

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While the Moa of Aotearoa New Zealand were the largest living bird between the extinction of the Elephant bird in Madagascar and their own extinction around 1400CE, they were not without a predator. Haast's Eagle would swoop down from trees to kill moa. They went extinct after Moa disappeared, but given they were large enough to take human prey it is possible they were not tolerated by the newly arrived Maori when they established their lands 700 years ago.

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Ostriches are the heaviest birds in the world, and also the largest. Standing at up to 2.8m (9feet) tall, they can weigh more than 150kg (350 pounds). However this is merely the runt cousin of some extinct species. The largest of Aotearoa New Zealand's Moa could have reached 3.6m, and the Elephant bird of Madagascar could have weighed up to 850kg.

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Bird facts with Graham

The smallest bird in the world is the Bee hummingbird from Cuba, measuring only 6cm from bill to tail and weighing an astonishing 2-2.5 grams.

Other things weighing 2 grams:

An American dime coin
UK 6 pence
A cashew
Australian 5c piece
A ziplock sandwich bag
Coke bottle cap
Half a teaspoon of sugar
A business card

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Bird facts with Graham

Migratory birds can find their way across hemispheres without any maps. A chemical called magnetite in their brain helps them detect north and south, and the number of hours of daylight tells them when it's time to move on. Cryptochrome in their eyes let's birds have a visual detection of the Earth's magnetic field. This explains how seabirds and shorebirds are able to cross oceans without any landmarks.

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Bird facts with Graham

While our eyes can detect red, blue, and green light, bird eyes can also detect ultraviolet light. That means the colour patterns on bird feathers can look different to them than they do to us.

Many flowering plants display UV colours, so lots of animals evolved the ability to see them. This led to UV colours in bird plumages and eggs. See alt text for details of the images.

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