COVER STORY: SPECIES PROFILE
THE blue-winged kookaburra (Dacelo leachii) was initially collected by Sir Joseph Banks, but was described by others and named in 1826 after the British Museum zoologist William Leech (1791-1836). Banks had confused it with its more famous relative (which people still do) believing it was a variation of the laughing kookaburra (D. novaeguineae). Ironically, the reverse is probably true. The blue-winged kookaburra, along with the three other kookaburras - shovelbilled (D. rex), spangled (D. tyro) and rufous-bellied (D. gaudlchaud) - evolved in the Papua-lndonesia area (the kingfisher heartland), and the bluewinged kookaburra is most likely to be the ancestor of the laughing kookaburra.
In coastal Queensland there are many areas in which these two species - once separated - coexist where their territories). Unlike the laughing kookaburra, it is easy to sex. The males have a blue rump and tail, whereas the tail of the slightly larger female (all female kingfishers are about 10 per cent larger than males) are chestnut brown with lateral black bars.
