Photographed in the Upper Waiwera Valley north of Auckland, September 2012
Several lots of kookaburras were released in various parts of New Zealand in the late 1800s. The only ones to establish were those released on Kawau Island by George Grey (between 1862 and 1867 he released all sorts of animals there including zebras and monkeys: the best-known of his introductions were the wallabies which included amongst their number the parma wallaby).
Kookaburras are not well established in NZ, it must be said. They occur only in small numbers in the top part of the North Island, largely in the area near to Kawau. The most likely reason for this is the lack of large amounts of suitable food (large-bodied invertebrates and reptiles).
I was deliberately looking for them on this trip, but it was still pretty weird seeing them in NZ (along with the pelicans the day before).
