'Spectacular' sight as kookaburra mysteriously turns orange
The native bird is normally brown and white in colour, so the orange hue blew Aussies away.
There's nothing more Australian than the sound of a laughing kookaburra, but the sight of one with its distinctive feathers and large bill, is even more impressive.
One cheeky native was more "spectacular" than most though, according to a bunch of bird admirers — because its usually-white feathers were a "striking" shade of orange instead.
The bird, a type of kingfisher native to eastern Australia, was spotted in a woman's backyard on Wednesday. The bird lover, who did not reveal her location, said she has a "number of kookaburras who visit each morning" — but none quite like this one.
"This one is the only one whose feathers appear quite a striking orange colour," she posted in a Facebook group dedicated to native birds this week. She said it's been sporting the unusual colouring for about a year.
Expert weighs in on unusual colour of feathers
Wondering how the colour of its feathers came to be, the Aussie woman at first thought it had been "rolling in clay soil". This is pretty common behaviour for most birds, said wildlife ecologist Sarah Legge.
"Lots of birds, including kookaburras, roll around in the dirt. We think it helps get rid of parasites," Legge told Yahoo News Australia. Doing this can turn the feathers a shade or two darker but "I've never seen it this extreme," he added.
It's also possible the bird's feathers are natural in colour as the starkness of the white can vary with each kookaburra. The feathers of the native birds can appear stark white or any shade of off-white or even slightly yellow or brown.
"I've seen some kookaburras get that kind of buffy colour, but never as spectacular as what this photograph suggests," she said. Legge noted, that if the bird has had coloured feathers for over a year, then it's likely not the dirt.
"It sounds like it really is that colour. Lucky bird," she said.
Aussies stunned by 'beautiful' kookaburra
The bird's seemingly rare colouring left social media in awe with many agreeing they'd "never seen one that colour" before. "It's beautiful," another said of the native birds. "He is so adorable," said a third.
The laughing kookaburra is native to eastern Australia and makes a very familiar call sounding like raucous laughter. Their call is used to establish territory among family groups, most often at dawn and dusk. The other type is the blue-winged kookaburra which is native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea and can be identified by their cream-coloured upper and brown and blue feathered wings.
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