When we were in Sydney last week, we observed strange behaviour by a pair of Laughing Kookaburras.
There are three palm trees near our townhouse, each of which displays a bulge resembling the covering leaves of an earlier clump of fronds, situated about ¾ up the trunk. The LK’s perched on a telegraph wire
about 10m from the trees. Over the period of about 20 minutes while I was watching, the LKs took it in turns to “attack” one or other of the trees. The attacks involved flying directly into the bulge of the target tree, bill first. The attacks were not
very vigorous and certainly nothing seemed to be happening in terms of a hole being created, or food produced, or nesting material being obtained. A rather pointless exercise, it appeared to be. There were many hits on the trees perhaps every 30 seconds
or so.
I recall once watching a pair of Sacred Kingfishers doing something similar in attacking a plugged-up hollow in a nearby tree. But their attacks had more purpose, vigour and effect. The plug was slowly being
chipped away, presumably revealing a hollow suitable for breeding. Perhaps it was the same instinct with the KLs but ineffective and against a very poor selection of target tree.
Any thoughts?
David Rosalky
