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| Our local Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) . |
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| This, of course, is our common Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita). |
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| This bird (eating a Cricket of the Gryllidae family) is unknown to me. Initially I thought it was the Common Koel, but they don't have the crest. Neither do Australian Cuckoos, so I'm afraid I don't have an identification for it. |
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| This I believe is a Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae). I'm not sure, because these photos of it flying were the only ones I got. It would be quite rare here; I don't remember seeing it before on my walks. |
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| When preparing for this post I heard the all too familiar sound of a bird hitting one of our glass doors or windows. This time it was our friendly kookaburra that had had a plunge in the pool, and then hit our glass door when taking off. I went to see what had happened, and he was there, on the ground, slightly dazed. He did recover though, and got back to his wings, and managed to fly off. |
The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua galerita, is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia and New Guinea. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being considered pests. They are well known in aviculture, although they can be demanding pets. It has a total length of 45–55 cm (18–22 in), with the Australian subspecies larger than subspecies from New Guinea and nearby islands. The plumage is overall white, while the underwing and -tail are tinged yellow. The expressive crest is yellow. The bill is black, the legs are grey, and the eye-ring is whitish. Males typically have almost black eyes, whereas the females have a more red or brown eye, but this require optimum viewing conditions to be seen. Their distinctive raucous call can be very loud; it is adapted to travel through the forest environments in which they live, including tropical and subtropical rainforests. These birds are naturally curious, as well as very intelligent. They have adapted very well to European settlement in Australia and live in many urban areas. These birds are very long-lived, and can live upwards of 70 years in captivity, although they only live to about 20–40 years in the wild. They have been known to engage in geophagy, the process of eating clay to detoxify their food. These birds produce a very fine powder to waterproof themselves instead of oil as many other creatures do. |
