It is barely 5 am and I hear my compatriots starting to call out koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-kaa-kaa-kaa, so I too join in the chorus which can be heard several miles away: if I did not sing, I would be denied the proud title we carry as the Bushman’s alarm clock! We do this also at nightfall to let the Bushmen know it is time to retire for the night. Humans think our call resembles their own laughter.

I am Kooks, a Kookaburra citizen of the woods of Nourlangie and my home is a hollow, high up on an oak tree. You would think such a home is very safe to live in, but no Sirree, the mountain snakes around here know how to climb trees and I shudder even now to think of a close call I had. But more of that later.

Before I take you through my day, let me tell you something about my species. We Kookaburras are similar to the kingfishers you are familiar with in India, only we are larger— about 40 to 45 cm long (kingfishers are about 15 cm long). Most of us live in New Guinea, South-East Australia and West Australia. I guess that my forefathers migrated to Northern Territory many years ago and that’s how I happen to be here, somewhat a rare bird in these parts.

We in Kakadu are a blue-winged species, but Kookaburras in other regions have other colours of plumage, predominantly brown. For some strange reason, Australians have named a cricket ball after us and lots of cricketers around the world play with the famed Kookaburra balls, including the likes of Tendulkar, Gilchrist, Jayasuriya and Lara! What an honour for my species!

I was laid as one of my Mom’s three eggs some 2 years ago and it seems I accidentally rolled a bit away from the other eggs, so the incubation was not very good; I took a little longer to hatch and became ‘Junior’! I was at a big disadvantage because my siblings were closer to the mouth of the tree hollow and would snatch all the lovely worms and insects from my mom’s and dad’s beaks even before I got a chance! Mom thought it was a process of natural selection as humans call it and accepted my likely death, due to starvation, as inevitable.

Then it happened... A fat brown snake slithered up our tree and thrust his menacing head into our home, his tongue flicking in and out to sense food. I was petrified and pasted myself to the wall of an inner cavity in the tree, but my poor brothers thought that Mom had come home with food and virtually greeted the snake. The snake coiled around my brothers till they were dead and swallowed them before going away. Whew! I thought my survival was nothing short of a miracle and when Mom and Dad returned home, I told them what had happened. All of us cried for my dead siblings, but soon got over our grief. Dad told me rather philosophically then that in the world of animals and birds, someone has to die so that someone else may live.

Lone nestling...
Mom and Dad have been married for two years and Mom says they will remain paired for the 20 odd years of life they expect to live. We like to help our parents when the next batch of our siblings arrive. Most of my relatives, including some younger brothers and sisters, live close to our tree in a big community. Mom and Dad say I can live with them for as long as I like, maybe till I find a wife for myself!

Okay, all this talking to you has made me ravenously hungry and it is now time for me to go looking for food. I like to eat lizards, small snakes, mice, insects, frogs, well almost any living thing that is available in this hostile land of mine. I think it is cool to fly 10 or 12 miles to go hunting for food. We Kookaburras, unlike kingfishers, do not bother much to go to lakes or ponds in search of fish and frogs; it won't be wrong to say we do not drink water at all— we get all the fluids we need from our prey. Snakes make a sumptuous meal and Dad has taught me to pounce on small snakes and flail them back and forth against rocks to kill and tenderise them; every time I do this, I feel as though I am punishing snakes for what one of them did to my brothers! Mom told me that the Kookaburras in South East Australia eat even food cooked by humans and some of them have been adopted by human families as pets.

I have now flown some 5 miles, picking up some nice meals along the way and it is time for me to rest a while. Here is a nice gum tree which will protect me from the bright, Aussie sun. I see a small cluster of school kids, going round in circles in the shade of the tree, singing a song. I listen intently and am surprised that it is a song about Kookaburras. The children sing:

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, Gay your life must be.
Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Eating all the gumdrops he can see.
Stop, kookaburra, stop, kookaburra,
Leave some there for me.
Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Counting all the monkeys he can see.
Stop, kookaburra, stop, kookaburra,
That's no monkey, that is me!

I memorise the song before taking to the skies and sing it to my Mom and Dad when I get home. They say it is a very popular kids’ song in Australia. Would you like to narrate my tale to children in India?