We live in Brisbane and for the past few weeks we have had a family of Kookaburras (2 adults and 1 juvenile) visiting us. One of the adults is very tame and used to humans as it let us hand feed him/her in such a short period of time. They are absolutely beautiful. Sadly today though, a neighbour walked by our house and told us that there were 2 dead kookaburras up the road in the gutter. My heart sank. I went to investigate and there was the adult kookaburra that let us hand feed him/her and the juvenile. The juvenile had what seemed to be a green tree snake (but I'm not sure) in his mouth (the head of the snake was in his mouth). The tail section of the snake was missing. Both birds were dead, lying next to each other. I know that Kookaburras eat snakes, I have seen them banging them on branches etc to kill them. Is it possible that the juvenile was bitten by the snake and the venom killed him and maybe the adult tried to intervene and was also bitten? It's very heartbreaking for me as I love all animals. I picked them up gently, removed the snake and brought them back to our garden and buried them with flowers. That's my thing, I can't bear to just leave them - we have a little animal cemetery you could say in our garden. Anyway, just wondering if this is something that happens regularly to Kookaburras as I can't see any other evidence as to how they died like that together. I have attached a couple of pictures we took a week or so ago. So sad.
Not sure it was the snake. I would rather think the birds were hit by a car since they were most likely too preoccupied with the killing of the snake. That being they may not have seen a car bearing down on them. And the way many people drive; they can only see as far as the car's hood. And many would not be bothered to look and/or slow down....
Yes, I had thought that it may have been a car also. Some idiot screaming around the corner and hitting them. We live opposite a school which is set on protected wetlands and next to that is a section of Land for Wildlife. We always drive slowly but there are too many morons around which couldn't care less. Very sad today as we can hear the remaining adult Kookaburra calling out this morning. Hopefully she/he finds another mate soon and has more babies!
Sad as it is . You have done the right thing .
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW