Cockatoo Love Story

A True Aussie Love Story

About eight years ago a  wild Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo flew into
a car and broke its  wing. The motorist took it to the Vet in Nerang ,
Queensland , who had to amputate  the wing.
We adopted her – for which we needed a  National Parks and Wildlife permit –
and kept her in a  cage outside where she was often visited by wild Cockatoos.
One of the things that impressed us was how she  would push lettuce leaves
through the bars  of the cage, offering food to visitors.
Last Sunday she again had a visitor.

As usual he spent a  lot of time sitting on the cage with a tamper proof latch.

There was a lot of  talking and grooming. A bloke has to look presentable
when courting a  bird!

Things got  interesting when he approached the front door. . ..

The clever  fellow figured out how to undo the tamper proof latch!

He opened the  door for a lot of mutual grooming and food sharing…

Oooh that’s  nice! Scratch a bit more on that side, dear…

He was not  shy to get into the cage and would go in and out a number of times.

They mated! We  are looking forward to beautiful baby cockatoos.
Will keep you  posted.

Later on, the  whole extended family came visiting but the special mate was
back every day so  far.

We leave the door open  during the day but if we forget, it doesn’t matter –
cockatoos have  intelligence that rival primates.
Because she has  only one wing, she stays inside or just sits on top.
Guess what happened next…

The Babies

At first it seemed as though he was  annoyed because she did not fly
off  with him and he would squawk a lot. He soon came to understand that  she could
not fly so he just stayed. However, she  was no longer returning to her cage. The two of
them would stay in the trees in our garden  and because the yard is well fenced, they were
safe from dogs but the neighbour’s cat is  not kept indoors at night and we often have to
chase it away. Chances are the cat would  come off second best in a confrontation with a
Cockatoo but at night cats remain a danger  because they could stalk a sleeping bird on the ground.

Cockatoos make  their nests in hollow logs but we noticed the male hard at work
digging a hole  under a clump of Lilly Pilly trees. We put down a hollow log for
them but they  just ignored us. The nest he dug was a hole with a short tunnel
leading off to  where she laid her eggs. Once there were eggs in the nest, the
male became  extremely aggressive. You better not get near the nest or he will
take chunks of  flesh from your foot. It was difficult to take these pictures  because
I literally had  to steal them while running away from the male.

We kept a vigil to  see how things were progressing.  They took turns  incubating
the eggs and covering the tunnel. After about three  weeks, the eggs hatched.
Have a careful look at this picture and  try to spot the bit of yellow fluff.

Whenever Mum &  Dad Cockatoo leave the nest, we try to get a look but you
have to do it  while running because Dad Cockatoo is chasing you!

Second lap running  around the Lilly Pilly trees!

Well, I hope his mother  thinks he is pretty and eventually I might think so too
but at the  moment, both of them just look like pink balls with a bit of yellow  fluff.

How’s that for a true  Aussie Love Story????
Definitely has the    aaawwwww   factor!

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