From the children's song:
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be
Related to kingfishers, the laughing kookaburra is a carnivorous bird native to Australia. Common prey: mice, insects and lizards. They're apparently not all that bothered by human company and have been known to eat from hands.
(Kingfishers, by the way, have an interesting body type. Their heads seem very large for their bodies, and their feet are very, very small. I guess that makes all the sense in the world for a bird that kills prey with its bill.)
Doodled from the Flickr photostream of Ian Sand.
