A Sulfur Crested Cockatoo band can have hundreds of birds.
During the daylight, the band breaks up into individuals or small groups, spread out over a large area. These groups of lookouts remain vigilant for threats like Hawks or Eagles - and, more importantly, opportunities, like me feeding the chooks. Out of nowhere, within minutes, the entire band of hundreds of Cockatoos can regroup over me.
Here is one of the lookout camps - high in a Black Salee Gum - with a Magpie keeping an eye on them.
Large landowners called Irish settlers 'Cockatoos' after they arrived in the country looking for gold in the 1850's. Like Cockatoo bands they were highly visible - being forced into small unproductive rural bush blocks clustered on the edge of mountains. By a curious twist of fate, Irish bushrangers emerging out of these adverse circumstances, developed the same effective intelligence system as Cockatoos.
Individuals can be engaging and inquisitive.
Peter Quinton
Palerang
August 2014
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