Peg, the One-Footed Cockatoo

Wild, one-footed cocky that comes to visit several times a week, on a chair on the veranda. You can see the little stump of her left leg there. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


And: A typical morning at the Little Australia household.

One-Legged Cockatoo

Here's a video of the one cockatoo we still feed. Her name is Peg:




And seconds after I stopped that video, Peg flew off with the dish. Cheeky bugger:





And this poor bugger looks like something out of a horrror movie:

We believe this bird to be suffering from Psittacine beak and feather disease. It is no fun:

Psittacine beak and feather disease is a viral disease affecting all Old World and New World Parrots (Psittacini, Hookbills). The virus belongs to the family Circoviridae. The virus attacks the feather follicles and the beak and claws-growing cells of the bird, causing progressive feather malformation and necrosis. In later stages of the disease, the feathers develop constrictions in feather shafts, cease development early until eventually all feather growth stops.

We saw something in the paper saying that you should actually try to capture these birds and take them to the local WIRES, as the disease is communicable. We'll look into that some more before actually throwing a blanket over one. Poor fella.

Lorikeets on the Veranda

Sitting at my desk just now, a pair of lorikeets that have judged us easy marks (and who Christine has named Sadie and June) landed on the hand rail of the veranda, just some eight feet from me. One positioned itself directly in front of the open door, cocked its head sideways, one eye focused on me, and screeched. Several times. Loudly. It was, of course, rewarded for this obnoxiousness.

Here's the "Naming of the Lorkeets" video:



And a closeup:

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

On the roof of the building next door, from our veranda:

Cockatoos are from the family Cacatuidae, one of three that make up the order Psittaciformes, the parrots. Wikipedia has this to say about what distinguishes them from the other two families:

The Cacatuidae are quite distinct, having a movable head crest, a different arrangement of the carotid arteries, a gall bladder, differences in the skull bones, and lack the Dyck texture feathers which, in the Psittacidae, scatters light in such a way as to produce the vibrant colours of so many parrots.

They live up to 40 years in the wild, up to 70 in captivity. And they are incredibly loud, and not in a pretty way:

While a flock is feeding, a few birds will remain in the tops of the trees, on the lookout for danger. If they spot a predator such as a large kite or a snake, they give a harsh, explosive cry of warning, and the other birds will immediately take to the air, squealing and screeching hoarsely in a cacophony of protest.

Birds that are at rest, moving among the branches high in a tree, nipping off leaves and twigs, often make a high-pitched screeching cry, like badly worn wheel bearings.

When flying home to their evening roost, they call loudly and incessantly, making a grating, querulous cawing noise. In flocks of over a hundred birds, jostling for a perch among the trees, these cries can become deafening.

Like other parrots, pet Cockatoos can mimic all sorts of sounds, learning to imitate human speech, barking dogs, power tools, and other household noises.

I'll try to get a gallery of the different calls.