Kukaburra

Amidst the rush to get to school, I glanced outside to check the weather
and was amazed to see one of these on the pool fence....

an awesome Kukaburra!!!

I had heard the kukaburras many times,
but had never actually seen them around our home
(only at the wilderness park in a cage).
Either I am bird blind, or they are just a little shyer than other birds and hide well.

Whatever the case, I consider this a rare and awesome thing to see.
Notice the beak. It seems like all the birds here have very strong, tough beaks.
They would have to have them to get inside the seed pods I see on all the trees.
Most of them seem to have very hard nut like shells.