All the world has kingfishers, but only in Australia & New Guinea can you see
Motmots, bee-eaters, todies, rollers, and ground-rollers are all related to kingfishers and fit within the Coraciiformes order.
Young Grey Butcherbirds resemble adults, but have black areas replaced with olive-brown and a buff wash on the white areas. The bill is completely dark grey and often lacks an obvious hook. They are sometimes mistaken for small kingfishers.
The laughing kookaburra is the world's largest kingfisher. It measures up to 46 centimetres from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail.
Key information. The little egret is a small white heron with attractive white plumes on crest, back and chest, black legs and bill and yellow feet.
Distribution. The Sacred Kingfisher is common and familiar throughout the coastal regions of mainland Australia and less common throughout Tasmania. The species is also found on islands from Australasia to Indonesia and New Zealand.
Kingfishers are divided into three groups; Alcedinidae or River Kingfishers, Halcyonidae or Tree Kingfishers and Cerylidae or Water Kingfishers.
Kingfishers live all over Australia, but predominantly in coastal regions. We have 10 native species, including the kookaburra, which is the largest. Kingfishers nest in tree hollows, in burrows in riverbanks and in termite nests.
Ibis are a part of our natural landscape. The Australian White Ibis is native to Australia and is one of three ibis species in Australia alongside the Straw-necked Ibis and the Glossy Ibis. For thousands of years ibis have been sacred to Indigenous communities and are excellent indicators of wetland health.
The cassowary is a large, flightless bird most closely related to the emu. Although the emu is taller, the cassowary is the heaviest bird in Australia and the second heaviest in the world after its cousin, the ostrich. It is covered in dense, two-quilled black feathers that, from a distance, look like hair.
Laughing kookaburras are the largest member of the kingfisher family. Members of the kingfisher family are found all over the world and are some of the only bird species known to be able to hover.
With talons the size of grizzly bear claws and legs as big as human arms, you're not going to want to mess with the incredible harpy eagle.
Great tit (Parus major)
Great tits are easy to identify. They have a black head and chin, white cheeks and a yellow breast.
The Spangled Drongo has glossy black plumage, with iridescent blue-green spots (spangles), a long forked tail and blood red eyes. Sexes are similar, but the female is slightly smaller. Occasional white spotting can be seen on the upper wings of both sexes.
#1: Puffin
The puffin is often confused for a penguin. The puffin ranks first among the birds that look like penguins.
The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.
In flight, flocks of Australian White Ibis form distinctive V-shaped flight patterns. Another common name for this bird is Sacred Ibis, but this more appropriately refers to a closely related African species.
With a wingspan up to 3m, the pelican is Australia's largest flying bird. Found in estuarine waterways, rivers and lakes throughout Australia, the antics of these Australian birds make for fascinating bird watching. The pelican has an elongated bill that measures up to 47cm – the longest in the world.
White cockatoos
Four of the Australian species are predominantly white in colour including the very familiar and spectacular Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. These noisy birds feed on berries, seeds, nuts and roots. They're equally at home in the city and in the bush.
Kingfishers have stout bodies, very short tails, short, rounded wings, large heads and long, dagger-like bills. Their feet are very small, with the two outer toes partly fused together. They nest in holes tunnelled into earth banks.
The two species have a very similar shape but the Collared Kingfisher is considerably larger and stockier, with a much longer and heavier bill. In the Collared Kingfisher the loral spot, underbody and collar are white, whereas they are buff in the Sacred, and the Sacred also has more blue on the folded wing.
Kingfishers range in size from the tiny 10 cm African Pygmy Kingfisher (Ispidina picta) – the world's smallest kingfisher, to Africa's 42-46 cm Giant Kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) and Australia's 40-48 cm Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae).
The largest kingfisher in the world is Australia's laughing kookaburra. It weighs up to 500gm, or 15 times as much as our bird. To differentiate our kingfisher from the other 86 species, it is officially known as the river kingfisher.
The giant kingfisher (Megaceryle maxima) is the largest kingfisher in Africa, where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara Desert, other than the arid southwest.
Guam kingfishers, or “sihek” as they are known as in Guam, are incredibly rare and difficult to breed. With fewer than 140 left in the world, each bird could be the difference between the survival or extinction of the species.