Click on the link below to have a look at photos of a "black" kookaburra. I reckon he's gotten into "something" (goodness knows what), but it just doesn't look right. To me it looks as though he's covered in a black, powdery substance. It's pretty hard to tell though. What do you all think?

http://www.lavis.id.au/gallery/v/Tods-Phot...lackKookaburra/

One wildlife carer friend thinks it's sump oil. But another thinks it's genuine, saying that "apparently it is not unknown and is what is known as melanistic (an overburden of melanin - opposite of Albino)."

I've never seen a Baby Kookaburra before (or at least I don't recall), so I guess the black wouldn't represent it's juvenile feathers?

The only other remote possibility I can guess - since Kookaburra's have their nests in hollows of trees (well usually), is the tree the nest is in was burned out and somehow the Baby was inundated by ash?

HI CP/M User,

I don't think it's a baby or juvenile, it looks like an adult to me. But no, baby and juvenile kooka's don't have black feathers, the colouring is much the same as an adult, but a bit paler with less blue.

'Fourth Crossing Wildlife' wrote:

I don't think it's a baby or juvenile, it looks like an adult to me. But no, baby and juvenile kooka's don't have black feathers, the colouring is much the same as an adult, but a bit paler with less blue.

Ah okay, I thought it was a baby because of all of those photos with the regular Kookaburra feeding them, though perhaps it is an adult which can't feed for itself or is simply blind?

Somewhere on the photograph website there's a bit of a speil on the birds and what was going on. Apparently, it was two birds - the black one and a normal coloured one - that were fighting over a dead mouse. The black bird won by jumping off the branch and putting all his weight behind the mouse so that the other bird dropped it. Very clever bird!

'Fourth Crossing Wildlife' wrote:

Somewhere on the photograph website there's a bit of a speil on the birds and what was going on. Apparently, it was two birds - the black one and a normal coloured one - that were fighting over a dead mouse. The black bird won by jumping off the branch and putting all his weight behind the mouse so that the other bird dropped it. Very clever bird!

Yes I read all about this in the passage above the thumbnails.

I'm becoming somewhat skeptical now that somebody has modified those images as an elaborate hoax - just to get attention (for what purpose I have no idea), I'm sure with an art program any bird could suddenly become black. How did you come across this Black Kookaburra?

I don't think that the photo's have been digitally reworked, but I guess anything is possible!

Another wildlife carer sent the link to the photos to me and when I questioned him about it (thinking that the bird may actually be compromised) he told me about "melanistic".

'Fourth Crossing Wildlife' wrote:

I don't think that the photo's have been digitally reworked, but I guess anything is possible!

Another wildlife carer sent the link to the photos to me and when I questioned him about it (thinking that the bird may actually be compromised) he told me about "melanistic".

Okay, so it's like a creature of the Deep Oceans will generally be white because of their lack of exposure to Sunlight, except this Kookaburra for some reason has had something happen to it in order for it to appear completely black. For the process of Melanin to occur it doesn't seem clear what happens for this to occur - I'm guessing this Kookaburra was exposed to lots sunlight when it was very young hence the black feathers.

melanin is produced by pigment cells called melanocytes, which are found in skin and at the base of follicles. albino's have no melanocytes, therefore produce no melanin. for the rest the melanocytes produce pigments of varying shades (red yellow blue), in varying sizes and density. skin melanin is stimulated by sunlight, but hair melanin is not. does your hair go darker in the sun? no. neither do feathers. same thing. maybe this kookaburra is a sign of things to come, and this darker colouring may be some kind of adaptation. who knows. interesting though. could it simply have been a different breed of kingfisher? by the way, it looked like a lizard in it's beak, not a mouse.

This post has been edited by greenade: Jan 6 2008, 11:21 PM

I've just done some searching on "melanistic kookaburra's" and came across an ABC forum where the chap who took the black kookaburra photos has asked about it. One reply was:

"Very un-common. It's a genetic mutation called hyper-melanism and it's probably seen less often than albinism."

I then googled "melanistic" to find its definition: Melanistic. Blackish due to increased amounts of black pigment.

And found it in Wikipedia too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanistic

It's all very interesting! The more I search the more interested I become!

I've just found a photo of a Black Cockatoo that is mostly yellow!! Nature is a funny thing.

Click on the link below and scroll down to about half way.

http://birdsinbackyards.net/forum/messages...47C8AFC1709F008

'greenade' wrote:

melanin is produced by pigment cells called melanocytes, which are found in skin and at the base of follicles. albino's have no melanocytes, therefore produce no melanin. for the rest the melanocytes produce pigments of varying shades (red yellow blue), in varying sizes and density. skin melanin is stimulated by sunlight, but hair melanin is not. does your hair go darker in the sun? no. neither do feathers. same thing. maybe this kookaburra is a sign of things to come, and this darker colouring may be some kind of adaptation. who knows. interesting though. could it simply have been a different breed of kingfisher? by the way, it looked like a lizard in it's beak, not a mouse.

I wasn't speculating the sunlight was alternating the colour of the feathers, I was speculating the amount of sunlight this Kookaburra was exposed to before if had any feathers did this - what do I know though!

My real question here is what makes hair melanin to alter?

'Fourth Crossing Wildlife' wrote:

And found it in Wikipedia too

Wikipedia speculates that "Melanism and abundism are often the result of genetic mutation, but can result from other stimuli, such as exposure to abnormal temperature changes during gestation which transiently alter gene transcription or translation.", so perhaps this Kookaburra went through something like that?

It was a friend of mine who put that thread up. He has many photos over two summers of black cockies that are mostly yellow. It seems while not exactly common there are enough of them that they get noticed a lot now.

Hello - I'm the one who took the photos

I was googling Black Kookaburra tonight hoping to try and find out some more information when I came across this thread I'm quite excited by the idea that you people find it interesting too (thanks Linda)...

I can assure you that the photo's aren't altered, and that the Black Kookaburra is indeed real.

He was back again yesterday no fighting over food this time, just sitting on a branch looking happy.

He has really intrigued me as it's opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me (I was really excited by the person who posted the photo's of the Yellow, yellow-tailed black cockatoo.)... I'm going to continue to keep my eye out for the Black Kookaburra and try and get a really good clear photo.

When I first spotted him (the day of the quarrel over food) I didn't know what to make of him so I searched high and low for some bird watching websites to post my original query on... I ended up posting on the following two websites:

http://birdsinbackyards.net/forum/messages...56C4AC9C04C05FE
http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/scribblygu...opic348905.shtm

To my amateur bird watchers eye the bird is definitely a Kookaburra, it has the same pattern markings on its tail and wings as a regular laughing Kookaburra but it just seems that everywhere it should have cream feathers, it has dark smokey feathers. From my investigations (wikipedia|Birds In Backyards) the other three species of Kookaburra's don't have this colouring either, and this bird is too big (same size a regular Kookaburra) to be any other kind of Kingfisher.

In terms of the prospect that the colouring comes from something like sump oil or a burnt out nest... To the naked eye the colouring looks too uniform for me to believe that it could be something like this.... with repeated viewings through my camera lens the feathers look natural not dirty in any way.

The mutation hyper-melanism that a few forum posted have referred to seems to me to be an interesting possibility... I'm intrigued to hear more peoples thoughts about this, is it likely that this birds babies will look like a regular Kookaburra (but still carry the melanism gene?).... I wonder what the life span and range of a Kookaburra is - do you think that in 10-15 years time this gully might have a couple more Black Kookaburra's flying around? I'm not sure if there is any natural advantage to be had in being a black kookaburra - but this one certainly knows how to fight his way to a feed.

How do birds pick their mates? Is it all to do with song and dance? Or will the colouring differences be a turn off/on?

I have taken a few more photo's since the day of the battle over the lizard (Thanks greenade - now that you mention it I agree that it doesn't look at all like a mouse and would more likely be a lizard ).

Black Kookaburra Additional Sightings

Click to view the fullsize link - to clearly see his wing and tail markings


fullsize link - it's interesting to look at his head colourings in this photo.. he still has the Kookaburra brown stripe through the eye

Cheers
Wook

PS: For some reason I keep referring to the Kookaburra as a He (I have no idea how to tell boy from girl)... I guess its the fact he won the battle royale over the lizard that makes me think that way

Greetings wookiebreath and Welcome to Envirotalk!!

I'm so glad that you've joined us to tell us more about your mysterious bird - I find him fascinating!! He surely is a splendid bird.

Until I saw your kookaburra I hadn't heard of "melanistic" - I was sure that he was suffering from some kind of horrible substance coating. But he doesn't appear to look distressed - I think that if he was coated in something he'd be feeling pretty down and probably would be doing a whole heap of preening. But he looks particularly carefree in the photos. Would you agree wookiebreath? Does he act like a normal kookaburra? Does he preen a lot?

It would be very interesting to watch him over time to see if he does have black offspring. He's obviously been accepted by the other local kookaburras as there were so many around him in the first lot of photos.

Male kooka's have more blue on their wings than females - but with this chap I think it would be difficult to tell with all that black!

Keep us informed wookiebreath. I'd love to hear what's going on with him.

- CP/M User

the melanin itself does not alter, the amount of production from the cells that produce it alters. Like the difference between 1000 flies on a window and 10 flies on a window. melanistic would infer hyper production of melanin from the melanocytes. when you go grey, that means that the melanocyte cell at the base of that hair follicle has died and not been rejuvenated. this is why grey hair is a sign of aging.

the sun on the bare baby bird would have nothing to do with future melanin production. this melanistic thing would be a genetic anomaly, where melanin is produced at grossly higher rates than normal. like a fast metabolism, but only for the melanocyte cells. hope that explains it a bit better.

welcome wookiebreath! (he he.. you watch too much star wars). thanks for popping in and telling us about your little "dark birdy". maybe they were having a jedi kookaburra battle! lol

'wookiebreath' wrote:

I can assure you that the photo's aren't altered, and that the Black Kookaburra is indeed real.

Yes I feel we've established that, I just love it when the owner of something comes forward to talk about the subject though! :-D

Welcome to Envirotalk anyway.

Just wondered, aren't Male Kookaburras slightly bigger than Female Kookaburras?

Thanks Linda


Yeah I totally agree that he is a carefree bird. He looks and acts just like the other Kookaburra's in the area. He doesn't do any excessive preening and appears to be sociable with the other birds.


That group photo was a one off occasion so far. That was taken when the two birds were fighting over the lizard, they drew quite a crowd to watch with all the racket they were making, and I've not seem that many birds at once in the gully since. He does appear happy though as there are usually a couple of other Kookas around when I see him and they don't appear to be trying to drive him away of anything. Lets hope he finds a mate



I shall indeed... I'm quite taken with the little fella and shall post back here should anything interesting happen or if I get some good clean photos.


:applause: Hee hee maybe you are right I can just imagine it now..




Hope I didn't crash the party... must admit I was excited to see that someone else had started this post and I just had to throw in my 2 cents.
Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the info you have all provided.


Took some more shots today

and just for contrast here is one of his Laughing mates: