More about Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Yesterday I had a comment on an earlier post that made some interesting, informative and entertaining things to say about the behaviour of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. In part, Scot was questioning my statement that this species was a bit flighty and hard to photograph. With his permission I quote his comments in full.
I’m surprised that you say that Sulphur Cresteds are hard to approach, Trevor. There’s a wild flock in the centre of Sydney that live in the botanic garden and it’s quite easy to wander around watching them dismantling various trees there. You can get quite close if you are careful.
They also use this as a base to invade much of the urban inner city area – some people feed them off their high rise balconies. I lived in Sydney’s inner east until very recently and they have, for the last 15 years or more, been a fixture of life in Woolloomooloo. Screeching their heads off and engaging aerobatic flying and tourist harassment and everything all year long.
In the last place I lived, in Potts Point, they used to regularly settle upon the trees in my street and proceed to demolish them for their fruit (which I note the Currawongs also ate). They will also attack human artefacts, such as the one we tried chasing off our neighbour’s window sill after it took a liking to shredding the fly screen. I guess living in centre of the big city they are used to humans completely. This one just looked me up and down, calculated that I couldn’t actually physically reach it, and then calmly returned to shredding activities.
They also once attacked a big foam spider effigy the museum had stuck on the front to advertise a spider exhibition they had on. I think they do this sort of stuff for pure entertainment value. They are hooligans and vandals and I love ’em!
Scot
Thanks to Scot for permission to post his comments.
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Mother duck ducks off
No Comments »28th September, 2006; Category: Bird Behaviour, Birds in the News, Ducks Geese and Swans
This seems to be an annual event in the heart of the capital city of South Australia. A mother duck and her family of five ducklings were seen in King William Street yesterday morning. This is one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares and goes right through the middle of the CBD.
All the fuss caused by the incident prompted the mother to abandon her offspring, flying off and leaving them to the perils of the busy street. The little ones were soon rescued and put into foster care where they will be hand reared.
A report in the local newspaper said it appeared that the mother duck was taking her brood from Victoria Square in the middle of the city to the nearby River Torrens. This is a march of about a kilometre through the middle of the city. Almost every year there are reports similar to this one.
Time for a shower
When we move from of our back verandah we enter a patio area covered in shadecloth. Along the edges of this paved area my wife has a collection of Australian native plants in pots. To water these she has set up a sprinkling system. This morning the plants needed watering.
A few moments after switching on the sprinklers she called me to the window to observe the reaction of the resident New Holland Honeyeaters. About a dozen gathered to enjoy the shower. They would fly into the misting water then land on one of the plants or the nearby bush. They would fluff up their feathers and give themselves a thorough wash. And all through the few minutes that the sprinklers were operating they set up a very noisy and excited chattering.
New Holland Honeyeater
I should add that the above photo was not taken this morning. I include it to show readers a photo of the species I was writing about. It was taken late last year.
Choughs v Magpies
White Winged Chough
Last week I wrote about the conflict in our garden between the family of White Winged Choughs and the Little Ravens. Both species were present in our mallee scrub feeding several recently fledged young. There was considerable yelling at each other, not the mention chasing and general brouhaha.
More recently the choughs seemed to have taken up residence in our mallee scrub, the orchard and the garden. Now the Australian Magpies are objecting to them moving in on their territory. The male magpie has swooped the choughs on numerous occasions. He never actually attacks any of them but merely makes aggressive swoops in their general direction.
These attacks usually result in the choughs ganging up on the poor lone magpie and seeing him off. With twelve choughs against one magpie it seems that the odds are against the magpie.
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A Bit on the Nose
My post of yesterday about dealing with aggression in birds, especially towards humans, has caused quite a flurry of comments, both on this blog and on the Birding-Aus forum.
A number of birders have commented on the fact that they have experienced being swooped by Red Wattlebirds. I’ve not seen that myself, but I do know that our resident Red Wattlebirds give most other bird species a hard time. They can be very bossy indeed. Especially towards small species like Pardalotes.
Bill wrote a very humourous post to Birding-Aus about his recent close encounter with a determined Red Wattlebird. Bill has kindly allowed me to quote his email in full.
You’ve heard of garden lists, life lists and hand lists, well this is
now on my nose list.This morning I was riding to work, just starting along my home street
(Kew East, Victoria), when I passed the nesting site of a red
wattlebird. This individual, like some other red wattlebirds, tends to
swoop at this time of year. They hurt less than magpies, but I’ve found
them to be much more tenacious.My normal defence against wattlebirds and magpies is to look around
ostentatiously, in the belief that birds only swoop from behind, and
they break off when they see you watching them. However, when you’re
riding a bike, it’s – shall we say – “advisable” to keep an eye out
forwards as well, meaning you can’t be watching over your shoulder all
the time.Of course, the wattlebird was in the process of attacking from behind as
I turned my head. It was probably six inches and closing when I found
myself face to belly. It broke off – or at least attempted to, and I
got clouted by wings on each ear as well as a nose full of belly. I was
lucky, thinking about it, not to get an eye full of claws.You know that yellow patch on a red wattlebird’s belly? It was a cold
morning and I had a slightly “cold air” runny nose. This guy’s belly
patch is now green.Bill
Thanks very much to Bill for this contribution to my blog.
Readers’ Project:
- Have you had an amusing encounter with a bird?
- I invite all of my readers to share close or amusing encounters with birds.
- Use the comments section below.