The Sounds of Australian Birds

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When I was recently overseas in North America visiting family and friends, things were eerily quiet. Sure – there were sounds of traffic, laughter, and the hum of the city, but there was something inexplicable missing. When I returned to Australia, I realized what was missing: the extraordinary lives and sounds of Australian birds.

This post was originally published in 2009. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.

I’ve already written enthusiastically about the king parrots and close encounters with a Rosella or three. And even since moving from Kingbilli, they are still a part of everyday life. They come by en masse for food if we have it, and there are two parrots in particular who stick around all the time. One (which incidentally eats from our hands) actually lands on the windowsill of the kitchen and raps on the window when looking for attention!

And charming as they are, these Australian birds are only a small part of the massive collection of stunningly beautiful winged creatures down under.

It’s not that birds don’t exist in other places; but common North American birds are rarely as colourful, big, gregarious, and frankly, noisy as their Aussie counterparts!

Take the cockatoo, for example. Here is a huge bird (usually white, but sometimes black and other colours too) that only sees non-Australian shores in a cage. Thus many people haven’t actually heard what a cockatoo sounds like when they let loose in the wild. The first time I heard one, I thought I had gone back in time; it sounded like a pterodactyl! Catch them sounding off in flocks and it’s absolutely deafening.

Have a listen for yourself:

Click here to listen to a flock of cockatoos!

And of course, no audio presentation of Australian birds is complete without a good ol’ Kookaburra song. The first time I heard one of these puppies, I actually thought there were monkeys in the area!

Listen here:

Click here to listen to kookaburras: one of my favourite Australian birds

This says nothing of the magpies – known as “maggies” in Australia, (not to be confused with North American magpies which are entirely different), whose garbled call is so pleasant to hear, but whose dive bombs are brutal when you unwittingly walk or ride near a tree with their nest in it…

…or the blue fairy wren, whose tiny iridescent blue body is regularly found flitting near a window…

…or the common ibis, which helped me to fetch some strange looks from locals when I saw one for the first time (thinking “wow! How exotic!“) and shot a picture of it picking through garbage in Brisbane…

…or the owls, who hoot for us nightly and occasionally let us steal a glance…

…or the huge emus, which always give me a smile as I think of the roadrunner cartoon….

…or the impossibly colourful lorikeet, which whistles loudly for its size and looks like it fell into a pool of rainbow…

…or the graceful black swans, which honk so charmingly…

…or the penguins, which live near Melbourne…

…or even the lyrebird, which is fairly elusive and known for its ability to accurately imitate anything – from other birds, to cell phones, to chainsaws…you name it….(seriously)

So please forgive me if I am distracted when you talk to me; I am probably mesmerized by yet another large and colourful Australian bird, or am listening to a kookaburra settle in for the night with its cackling call.

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