Pictures King parrots

[Sulphy Too]

My flock of king parrots turned up this morning so I took some pictures .I had a couple of them eating out of my hand .Last year they were sitting on my shoulders ,head and arms

 

[Sarahmoluccan]

That's so cool!! Thanks for sharing

 

[Sulphy Too]

here is a close up of one of the birds only about 30 cm away from me

 

[Sylvester]

You're from Australia. You guys get all of the cool animals.

 

[rockoko]

They're so pretty!

 

[WendyN]

Beautiful!

 

[faislaq]

I am envious of "your" flock! Beautiful birds you don't have to clean up after?? Sign me up!

 

[Shezbug]

What state are you in? We get lots of the too's and grass parrots here in the part of Victoria I am in.

 

[Sulphy Too]

I'm in Victoria too

 

[Shezbug]

Hmm, I can not even think where in Victoria you get to see King Parrots. You have some beautiful birds to hang out with

 

[Sulphy Too]

I got a question for you Shezbug relating to sulpur crested cockatoos. As you know the sulphies bounce up and down now and then on their perch .Mine does too but his bounce is more of a dance with a flick of his head and then he bounces again moving in the opposite direction alomg his perch and odoes his head flick again , dancing back and forth along his perch . He does the head flick motion in his cage altermating feet . It's hard to explain and I should find a way to post a video . I think bouncing up and down is a sign the cockatoo is happy .I Googled it to find out without any luck . The other thing is I have never have seen this bouncing behaviour done by the wild birds . It seems only birds in captivity bounce while the wild ones don't .What do you think ?

 

[Shezbug]

I think every cockatoo I have seen or known that enjoyed human company did exactly what you have described with the dance and head spin/snake type motion. I have never seen a wild one do the dance bounce you describe. I have seen one cockatoo in a wild flock do the dance bounce but he was formally a pet/companion bird that had escaped and somehow managed to be accepted by the local wild flock. This was at Greenvale Reservoir Park, I used to go there a lot with my mum and kids, my mum worked there for a while and I would walk the dog and kids in the park while she was working. They had magpies that would sit on taps waiting for my mum to start work, they would sit there till she turned the taps on for them to have a drink and shower.....it was cute to watch. There are quite a lot of birds there and the cockatoo that I mentioned caught my attention because he was comfortable with people and also spoke many words and phrases, he was so differently behaved to the rest of the flock but he was also allowed to hang out with them, I remember being fascinated by this as most pet birds are never accepted by wild birds.

 

[Shezbug]

I digressed but yes I have noticed there are things like the bounce and dance in captive birds that are very different to how they seem to be in the wild birds. I have not really seen wild birds entertain themselves the same way as captive birds. I guess the dance gets the captive birds a happy people response maybe this is why they do it? Wild birds do not need or want our approval so maybe they have had no need to learn how to do this?

Why are you trying to make my brain work more than I want it to?? Lol.
It is certainly an interesting observation.

 

[Sulphy Too]

I'm in the Yarra Valley , but Lodah lives around Bright and there are quite a few king parrots there. Today I fed four waves of birds .I got my regulars - the crimson lorakeets that wait for me in the tree every emorning . Then a flock of cockatoos showed up scaring all the birds away and devouring everything .Then the galahs and correllas turned up ,and finally the king parrots

 

[Shezbug]

I in the Wimmera Mallee area we get lots of the corellas (so many they are allowed to shoot them ), heaps of galahs, not so many cockatoos but some, lots of little different grass parrots and heaps of birds of prey.

 

[Sulphy Too]

The wild cockatoos always come down to get friendly with mine but my bird hates them and pecks them until they go away . Actually he hates all birds because in his mind he must be the center of attention when I'm around . I had a hand readedsun conure on my left hand and him sitting on my left one in a pet shop in Bundaberg , Queensland and he wanted to attack the little bird . Speaking of agro birds you would not want to take your pet bird into the park behind the information center in Bright. I did and those little plovers constantly diving and attacking my bird on my shoulder to the point I had to get out of there .

 

[Shezbug]

Lol, plovers are wicked cool birds. They only do that if you are too close to their nest and they have young. We had them living outside one of the houses I used to live in so we befriended them so they would not swoop at my kids. I believe they have a poison or toxic spur, I never checked up if it is fact or not.
The baby plovers look like little fluffy white tennis balls on long legs hehehe

 

[Sulphy Too]

I know of farmers who shoot scads of the sulphys like mine . A few years ago one of my co workers told me that my boss was shooting the black cockatoos and had told him not to let me know he was doing it because he knows I love birds . Well maybe almost all -other than those disease ridden flying foxes . I see the black cockatoos around from time to time but they feed on special pine cones and they seem to like apples when they are small and in the developing stage .

 

[Sulphy Too]

I wonder what the wild cockatoos are thinking when they look down and see me take my bird out of the tree and stand there looking up at them . I think they look bewildered . I have noticed the rosellas have modified their behaviour somewhat since I first started feeding them . They used to spend more time hopping around and fighting over the food rather than eating it . Now they wait for their feed and even share the table with other birds like the galahs and corellas .I think the most beutiful bird in the cockatoo family of birds is the Major Mitchell . Iv seen them in the wild near Mildura and I think near Renmark SA.

 

[Shezbug]

Awww the flying foxes are cute even if they are disease ridden! I can not believe anyone would shoot black cockatoos but I do not like to think of half of the things people are happy to do, that is so sad. I think some of the places that have permits to shoot the corellas only got them because the gas guns caused a problem for the local people so they can put a silencer on a gun and just shoot them instead. I do not like the thought of it at all.

The wild cockatoos could be thinking your bird is either very brave or they could be thinking he is stupid for being so close to you lol. The major mitchells are so beautiful, I know a man who has four of them and one of them is going blind .