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!