A kookaburra: ‘They think they are waking the world’

‘A visit from a kookaburra feels meaningful, as though the bird is trying to tell you something.’ Illustration: The Natural History Museum/Alamy

I walked out of my kitchen on an overcast morning last week, feeling depressed, trying to think my way around the US election result somehow towards acceptance – or a totally different reality.

I walked to the garden, carrying a load of laundry. And perched on the top edge of a chair was a fat, fluffy laughing kookaburra. It looked at me, I looked at it. A large kingfisher with a long, dagger-shaped beak. The corners of its beak turn upwards so that it looks as though it is smiling slightly. Soft white feathers on its belly, iridescent blue opal spots on its brown wings.