Blue Winged Kookaburra

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Bob
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Blue Winged Kookaburra

[img]http://picasaweb.google.com/bd1235/BlueWingedKookaburras#5107392103321188050[img]
Does anyone know what these two kookas are doing? I saw them doing this several times. They made a noise when doing it but I can't recall it exactly but the noise attracted me to the birds when they were doing this. I thought it may be a mating ritual. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service think (not sure) it may be a territorial encounter.

Bob
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second go to get a photo in here.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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well I succeeded but the result is not good. The image is truncated at the right.

Looks like it only works for small (pixel size) photos.
Why not just go to Picasaweb and look at the 30 photos I have of Blue Winged Kookaburras. Most of these photos were taken at about 2 metres from the birds. They were quite tame and accepted hand feeding quite readily.

I am trying to find out what the birds are doing when they sit for up to an hour with their beaks locked together and making a crooning noise. There are 3 photos like this. They were taken in the early morning on 22/5/2006 at Dingo Beach QLD 4800.

Find the photos here
http://picasaweb.google.com/bd1235/BlueWingedKookaburras

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

GeorgeP
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Nice shot Bob. Try uploading at 500 x 33 pixels and you should be right.

Cheers,

George
Melbourne, VIC

GeorgeP
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I meant 500 x 330. We need that edit button, don't we !?

Cheers,

George
Melbourne, VIC

Bob
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George
I will resize it after dinner and see how I go. It wont have the detail though.
Bob

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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The picture has been resized to about 500x375.

The original was 2272x1704 pixels so it had to come down an long way. Word 2007 did the best job.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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I put up the thumbnail which was why it was so small. Here is the 498x375 image.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

smeedingo2
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HI Bob
There are some top shots there do they do that on the same branch all the time.

Bob
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No they dont do that a lot in my observations. I visited Dingo Beach in 2006 and 2007 for about 40 days and I saw the kookas doing this about 4 or 5 times. Mostly it was in higher trees but this photo was just outside the back door one morning and they were almost low enough to touch. They remained there in that pose for quite a while. It was not difficult to take the photos. They are very accustomed to humans and I was about 2 metres away for the photos.
I am trying to find out what they are doing. I think it is a mating ritual (male on LHS and female on LHS in the pic). I asked Queensland Parks and Wild life Service and they thought it was a territorial confrontation but they were not sure.
Does anyone have any idea what they are doing.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

Bob
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another typo, the female was on the right hand side.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

smeedingo2
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HI Bob
Sorry I'm not sure but nice photos.

ed
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Hi Bob
Checked out the pictures, never seen BWK do this but have a look at this post 'fighting channel-bills' '16/11/08 05:15 PM' not sure how to link to this but the 'search' should find it.

Ed Townsville NQ

Bob
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Ed
A BiBY search doesn't do it for me so I tried a Google search of the BiBY web site and that picked it up as the first hit. This is the Google search argument: 'fighting channel-bills' site:www.birdsinbackyards.net
The kookas could be fighting but they were very passive and not moving at all. They were making a crooning noise and it was a male and female here. One argument against a mating ritual is that nesting time is September to November (ref. NW Cayley WBiT p160) and this was in May.
The way to link to the post in question is to right click the word Link at the bottom of the post and select Copy Shortcut. You can then paste the URL of that post.

cheers Bob....Hastings VIC

ed
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Ed Townsville NQ

ed
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Apart from my spelling that works, thanks again.

Ed Townsville NQ

tarkineus
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I've not previously seen even a picture of this particular kookaburra. It's certainly a handsome bird and you've captured the action superbly, Bob.

Regards, "Tark" - Olympus 4/3rds colour

commish
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Hi All,

On my visit to Darwin, this time Litchfield National Park found something else I didn’t know, (doesn’t take much when it comes birds) there is a Blue Winged Kookaburra. I have since found out they are only in the Tropics, a couple of photos [img] http://lh5.ggpht.com/_2znpgCnEvyc/Svz0yKFwprI/AAAAAAAAKbk/OzOmvOFeOZI/s720/071109%20093.JPG [/img]
[img] http://lh6.ggpht.com/_2znpgCnEvyc/Svz00yi61aI/AAAAAAAAKbw/0UacNO34sqc/s720/071109%20098a.JPG [/img]

Good shot there Bob, but no idea what they may be doing. I didn’t even know of this bird till a visit to Darwin. On board the Ghan both ways for the 80th year of this train.

Cheers

Commish

commish
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mmmm Had to re-crop this photo & try again

Hopefully it will all be there this time

Cheers

Commish

commish
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Re-cropped it & hopefully all of the Kooka be there this time

Cheers

Commish

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