Cock-a-hoop about the Cockatoos

Our neighbour gave us a bird table for Xmas. He made it, so we feel honoured and happy to have it on our deck. Readers of this blog will know that it has attracted all sorts of birds over the months but not just birds. We have had rats, and mice which have brought snakes and possums that eat my passion fruit plants.

However perhaps the most frequent users of the bird table are the raucous Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. They swoop down with the most monumental raaaaak announcing they are coming to lunch. Apparently Cockatoos are not early risers ! We often get several perched on the table and we can be sitting only a few metres from them and they will  happily carry on munching the seeds, making an awful mess and then having drinks of water. I do enjoy sitting and watching them so happily share some of the pictures with you here.

More recently however I noticed that one bird that was flying in was lacking his sulphur crest and I thought perhaps this was a sign of him being in a neighbourhood squabble or like middle aged men, this is a sign that they are thinning on top. So I looked out for this one coming in, thinking perhaps it is not as resilient as some of the others. You may be interested to know that Australian birds are apparently some of the most aggressive birds in the world and have been known to destroy trees, houses and paintwork to name just a few of their achievements. Cockatoos are not only aggressive they live to a very ripe old age. That does not stop the magpies sitting in the hoop pine nearby swooping down on them and giving them a real run for their money.

When another cockatoo turned up looking as if it too had been in the wars, it lacked some of its crest but not all and its beak looked mangled I actually began to worry and on researching this and talking to a vet, a colleague of my husbands, I realised that the birds were suffering from Beak and Feather disease. Apparently they can be cured so I am heading out to the vet shop to get the right treatment for their water. So watch this space - for an update on my sick cockatoos because I am determined to get them to live to a ripe old age just like nature intended.