Wild Bird Trust photographers of the week

Two pictures in this week’s edition of Top Wild Bird Photographs of the Week by Wild Bird Trust. That is truly a great start of the week. Both pictures are from my vacation in Australia, one from Tasmania and one from mainland Australia.

The first picture is of a giant Kingfisher, the Laughing Kookaburra. The Kookaburra is a really huge Kingfisher if I compare it to the ones I have seen in Europe and Africa. It is carnivorous and preys on everything from small mammals to snakes.

The birds name refer to its laughing call, which is something spectacular. The laugh needs to be learnt by the young birds as you probably understand by listening to this recording of the Laughing Kookaburra.

I think this picture is a nice portrait of the Kookaburra, which I actually found because it was laughing. The picture is simple as it portraits a perching bird, but I really like the bark on the tree together with the smooth background. A more uniform background is always one of the goals, but I like the feeling you get in this picture with the slightly messy background and the nice haircut on the bird.

The second picture is of a lovely Rainbow Lorikeet couple.

The picture is from a place called Kalimna Woods Cottages just outside Lakes Entrance where we stayed for six nights. They feed the local birds each morning, which was a nice start of the day, and the Rainbow Lorikeet was the most numerous bird there. I understand that this lovely wild bird is considered a pest in some areas. Sadly this is most often due to human activities as the bird has been introduced to areas where they aren´t indigenous.

I saw this type of interaction on many occasions and this is actually one of the few times I got the pleasure of being able to take good pictures of the behavior. They were really intimated preening and strengthening the bond between them. A nice picture of these colorful parrots that I hope you can enjoy.