tyabblemons Said:

     It was certainly a cold, wet day in Tyabb, the latest in a string of them. The wild Australian Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoos were hungry. They are not completely wild, as they enjoy dining at the many feeders left out by local residents. The cockies don't have to forage for food.

     But they were impatient. Rose put the seed out, then went to feed the chooks, as is her normal routine. The cockatoos were waiting in the wattle tree above the chook-yard.

     Rose just wasn't quick enough for their liking. One cocky broke this twig off the tree, and dropped it squarely on her head, from where it slid off and landed at her feet. It might have just been payment for today's seed.

Our most precious present given to us to date is this half-chewed pine-cone. It was dropped at our feet in payment for seed. We can't put a value on it. There's still good seed left in here!

Today was such a remarkable day at the feeders that I've made this special note to highlight it.

I set out to photograph healthy birds today. Many individuals we recognised turned up too. I'm too eager to post to do any post-processing on these images - they are raw off the camera, just resized. Might fix that later.

That area down the back between the CocaCola sign and the chook yard is where the sanctuary will go. It's much bigger than it looks through the telephoto lens, which flattens everything. The shed will be located at the fence, and the wire enclosure will stick out from there. I'm planning the whole thing to be 3 meters wide by 4 (maybe five) meters long. I want a decent, high flight area for them. This size is planned to accommodate four birds with PBFD. We currently have five I think. The extra bird might have to cram himself in, but I dunno, do you think there will be room?

The elusive Sooky was finally spotted and photographed. We first logged this bird way back at the beginning, but I could never get a pic of him. We think this bird is very young - last season's. No matter where he sits, he just squawks at his mum to feed him. He is very predictable and unique in this behaviour. He was at it again today. He gave up in the end and submitted himself to eating from the feeder.

Headphones needs to go in the sanctuary. He needs a beak-trim and protection from the weather. If we can do this I think he'll be okay. He needs Baytril.

A favourite game of many cockies is to get the seed out of the little holes at the bottom of this feeder. They are very patient, and will spend a lot of time to get a good seed, like a bit of corn, or a sunflower seed. We have so many different designs of feeders because we don't know what kind of feeders other residents are using, and the birds are used to. We know the corner house has a 'house' like feeder - like our green one. We want to attract sick birds, so we want them to be comfortable using whatever feeder they prefer, and different birds definitely prefer a specific feeder. Dr Ross Perry has advised us to cut a large piece of PVC pipe in half, and brace it at each end. This way, the seed is laid out along the feeder and the bullies can't keep the other birds from getting a feed. Well, that's the theory, and it sounds good, so we'll make one of them as well.

I spotted this pair way up the back in a wattle tree. I'm still not quite sure what I've seen. These two birds were either courting, or it is a mother feeding a young bird. A mother feeding a young bird would not be unusual, except that it's July - and any fledglings are well and truly weaned by now, surely. The breeding season begins again in August. As we'll see, the bird with it's back to us doesn't appear to be a young bird, despite the fluffy clean look of it's feathers. (Her feathers?)

The upper most bird was regurgitating food and feeding it to the lower bird, also a courting behaviour. She was shaking so fast that in the above pic, even with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second, her wings are blurred as she shakes back and forth very quickly, swallowing the food.

They kept at it:

In between regurgitations, they 'snuggled', with their heads very close together. She fluffed herself up as big as she could. It was spectacular:

Then back to the feeding:

Eventually though, he either ran out of food, or decided to stop feeding her, no matter how much she fluffed herself up and begged:

Eventually, he left, and she turned to give us a good look at her. I note the large, weathered beak, and particularly the discolouration of the feathers immediately around her nostrils. I don't think this is a fledgling. They gave me a glimpse into their personal lives, and I'm very grateful, and almost feel that I'm betraying them by publishing their rendezvous. Let's just keep this between us.

Brad Lemon

2/07/2013 4:45 PM

Photographed at Tyabb Victoria, Australia

by Brad & Rose Lemon

     We've had one of the best days ever at the feeders today. Tyabb, a semi-rural suburb south-east of Melbourne, is home to flock of around 100-150 Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. They live in the tall pine trees along the railway line, which have lots of hollows for protection and nesting. These birds don't have to forage for food - they are fed by numerous human residents of the area. Our feeders would be busy at all times of the day, but we limit the amount of food available each day to discourage them from visiting us early in the morning!

Surprisingly, the flock doesn't visit all at once. They usually visit in small groups - a maximum of twenty birds. Today was out of the ordinary, and Rose counted 40 birds at one stage. Today was the first day we've tried porridge for the weaker birds. It proved to be a big success, not just with the sick birds but also with the very young cockies.

This first cocky in the above pic is just brand-new. He's got a tiny beak and his feathers just don't seem to fit properly yet lol. I think he's still getting good at preening. All these birds are juniors.

The young cockies are supervised by a couple of aunts. We assume they're aunts. It's hard to tell the gender of these birds without careful examination. There is a slight difference in the pigment of the eye, but it's almost impossible to see on a Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. The main flocks will feed at morning and late afternoon and rest during the day. Only the sick and young feed during the middle of the day. There is always at least two aunts supervising and they will take turns at being on lookout duty, perched on the highest vantage point available. This practice is so remarkable that the lookout posted for an illegal two-up game is called the 'Cocky'.

There is a disease that affects all parrots, but particularly the white parrots like these cockatoos. It's called Psitticine Beak and Feather Disease, or PBFD. It is the AIDS of the parrot world, caused by a virus. Birds often catch it while still in the egg. Those that catch it in their first year of life have extremely high mortality - nearly 100%. Some birds catch it later or build up a resistance of sorts. They can go on to live with the disease for years, but they will always remain contagious. PBFD was first researched by Dr Ross Perry in 1972. He is still practising, helping people with domestic birds live with the disease. We are planning a consultation with him very shortly to discuss the Tyabb Cockatoos. We have counted four birds out of the entire flock that appear to be affected by chronic PBFD. If this is the naturally occurring rate, then we will likely do nothing. If it is higher, then we will fight the disease, but this will mean euthanasing our favourite birds. Yes, we love lame ducks. The cocky pictured above we have named 'Baldy'. It is amazing that he or she is still alive - only the wings have saved her. We say 'her' because she feeds with the young. She only has flight feathers and tail feathers left. If we take her to the vet she will be euthanased and there is nothing else we can do - except feed her food that will keep her alive while she can still fly. We think she's got a good hollow in a pine tree and that's how she's surviving the weather.

As you can see, Baldy has got a broken flight feather. This leaves her open to secondary infections which is what usually kills birds with chronic PBFD. We are so worried about Baldy that we will ask the Vet's opinion shortly.

This is one of the other birds with PBFD. We call him 'Big Mouth'. Notice the way the disease is eating away at his beak? It will likely break off soon, and then we worry about whether he will be able to eat seed. We'll see, and there's always the porridge. We are most fond of this bird as he is tamer than any other bird. He may have been captive at one stage - we don't know. A flight feather he dropped looked like it had been clipped at some stage. Could have been a fluke. Big Mouth is never gonna win a beauty contest, but he is our favourite. He arrives every day at 11.30am.

Mostly though, the cockies are in terrific health. This old one melts my heart.

Their diet is great, and if the weather is kind we expect a good breeding season come September. We think the Tyabb Cockatoos will do well again this year. The farmers curse us, as cockatoos can destroy a crop in minutes flat. However, these cockies are so well fed that they're too lazy to be bothered with crops. Far more numerous are the Corellas, who we call the flying monkeys. They arrive in flocks of about 100 and clean the feeders out completely when it happens. They are somewhat nomadic - and you just don't know when a flock will arrive. The Tyabb Cockies tolerate the Corellas, but the flying monkeys bite hard so that the cockies generally give way to them. We take lots of notes, and try to identify individual birds. We note when they visit in a diary. I'm building a special feeder that will double as a trap so we can catch any birds that need to see a vet if we are lucky. Hope to release them back into their own flock after treatment.

It has been an extraordinary experience studying these birds, day after day. We never miss it. It's not boring to watch them as young cockies are quite stupid. And our old favourites just keep coming around for Rose's cooking.

As you've read this far, thank you very much for taking an interest in the Tyabb Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, and for reading my post.

Sorry, you can't leave comments on this note, but you can contact me on Twitter if you need to: @tyabblemons, of course!