Living on the edge of the National park we have a variety of birds come visit. It would be unusual for us to have breakfast alone without at least one sulphur-crested cockatoo, eastern rozella, rainbow lorikeet, pink and grey galah or kookaburra come up to the window to see what us two-legs-no-feathers-can't-fly are doing.
They are very playful social animals. I've come across at least one paper which found that the sulphur-crested cockatoo is the worlds most intelligent bird. They live for over 100 years, and in addition to being large (50 cm, 20 inches) inquisitive, cheeky showoffs they love to make a noise with their valley filling raucous screech. All well and good but the cockatoos are big and like to chew houses, stripping the wood, detaching guttering and removing fly-screen, just for the fun of it. They also crap on your washing and the bastards know exactly what they are doing when they do so.
To try and keep them at a distance from the washing we put a relativly lifelike $2 wooden snake on the fence.
It worked for about a week.
26 comments:
Yep they're both gorgeous birds and cheeky little bastards at the same time.
We used to get them around our birdfeeder until they made the ill-fated decision to chew on my brand new fence posts. I was not amused :)
Then they chewed on the birdfeeder....
I still love them though - so long as they stop destroying my house :)
Well I live on the edge of the city and I too have a variety of birds come and visit. Only mine love the snake and don’t shit on my washing, but they often do leave a few stains on the sheets.
Mike - I guess you get the black cockatoos up there. They are noisy in a whole new way.
Bo Bo - Funny bugger. Make sure your one eyed anaconda doesn't get psittacine beak and feather.
ha! love the killer snake shot - i can see those birds are petrified!
we get lots of birds here too, but my favourite backgarden creatures would have to be the water dragons.
amazing looking creatures - very prehistoric looking.
See my next post.
Is that from the BBC series: Life of Budgies ??
They are magnificent birds though, eh. I used to have one as a pet and it used to sit on the curtain rail and pick the hooks out of the curtains till they dropped on the floor.
I'll loan you my bloodthirsty Bengals for a week if you really want to fuck these cockies up a bit...
You must be thinking of the epp where I was running around in my budgie smugglers?..
I'll pass on the tigers unless you have them trained to take out Indian minors (sorry Keshi).
Heh I love the look of studious suspicion you've got on you face. "And here we have a particularly colorful specimen that I'm hoping will not shit on my hand before I've taken this picture."
It must be odd to live someplace that has nature.
We don't really have a many local birds. When we do have migrating birds stop over people promptly start shooting at them so yeah, I don't think we deserve a native avian population.
Mmmm... we have the Indian minors out our way.. chipper little fellows.. very naughty. May i say something to Bo? Bo... Iv always known about the snake at the Circus.. Its merely the variety im interested in.. :-) As to the yellow topped cockatoo? It features in one of our major bank adverts.. a bank that does home loans.. the kind of home loan that breaks you down for 25 years.. till you own a wreck of a home.. Ironic!! Iv a question to ask.. :-) why are you mushy and lovey on your site.. and hard core on others..? mush is good though.. love my visits.. enjoy stretching my mind.. Love Tiff
The look of suspicion is derived from the well earned reputation their beaks have endured them
Oyster - easy. Mum reads here, and I'm not that hard core.
What beauty! I’m sure that’s one of those natural wonders vacationers get all goo goo eyed for since they’re not awoken by their savage raptor like cries in the wee morning hours 365 days a year. Where’s all the dangerous wildlife that’s supposed to scare these feathered savages off? Real brown snakes? Dingos? Huge freaking lizards?
I have this mental image of you living in the Land of the Lost. Don’t ruin it for me.
The most wildlife we have here in Kuwait is the occasional camel or goat herd clogging traffic.
That was gold!
I love cockatoos but they're inquisitve bastards. As my shredded strawberry plants will attest. Well, they would if they were still alive.
MMmmmmm..... hello Mum! :) love Tiff
Oh wow - cool picture - in the city we get those rats with wings - otherwise known as pigeons...
Happy Monday to ya!
Cat
Wow! Very cool.
The more I know about your life, the more it seems that you live in some sort of super perfect tropical paradise. Except for the working in IT part. I'd rather do what your brother does.
Damn those crappy bastard birds, lol.
*smiles*
Cool pics, btw. Wanna know sumthin? Well I'm gonna tell you anyways. :) You kinda look my hubby in this pic. Except he's not into colorful birds but you know what I mean right? ;)
*giggles*
I've heard they taste like chicken. Um, give it a go and lets us know. Maybe put a few on the bar-b-que grill, ya know.
Oh and when is cockatoo hunting season?
Ciao babe.
forget the snake -
rig up a trapese and get in some of those little bicycles and skateboards for them to ride on!
You might want to try this...my old dad put it up in his backyard to ward off the Indian Myahs (spelling??) who he says came to just 'chat and crap' on his outdoor setting.
Dad's erected two giant posts and strung wire across his whole backyard with a giant plastic 'eagle' flapping in the breeze. He says it is working! Had to order the plastic eagle off the internet though for about a hundred bucks.
Mum's not too happy with the bloody great posts and a giant plastic sheet of paper hanging in the middle, but Daryl (er, I mean Dad) has never been happier.
Men and birds and gardens. It makes me smile. :)
Ahhhh... how I miss the cockys!!!! and the beautiful birds in general.
We finally saw a cockatoo (of the sulphur crested variety) for the first time here last thursday walking down the road on a leash (!!!!)... I kid you not.
But back to the snake... I think you need an animatronic one... or a remote controlled one (surely they'll be in shops for christmas!!!)...
Just imagine the possibilities. ;)
NOT that I condone torturing the native wildlife or anything.....
De Campo BC > they are so cheeky they never get old - unless they are chewing on your house. That gets old fast. The top preditor of these guys nowdays (not so many dingos) would be the massive (90cm) powerful owl
phishez > just be grateful the next person got strawberry shit on their washing.
"The Oyster Box" > mum's waving back at the bivalve
Cat > ewwwwwww, I hate em.
Em > agreed - I don't think sunglasses would be out of place.
Memphis Steve > except in a financial crisis.
I Smile 2 Much > which begs the question, just what kind of birds is he in to?
Spiky Zora Jones > From what I have seen they are more likely to taste of that rubber seal used around windows, they sure eat enough of it.
Jen > you obviously don't know my mum :-)
projectivist > I was thinking an auto loading trebuchet
kate > I've taken to using a water pistol for now.
Lisamaree > that's cruel - for such a beautiful animal.
I was amazed at the varity of colourful birds in Australia, but my favorite was the Bell Birds, there were some in the dog park we took Taz to in Melbourne, I really miss those, along with the rest of the country...
There are not-so-colorful vultures in the neighborhood. Freaks out the cats when one lands on the deck railing.
Fusion > Did you know that they are illegal - true - the volume of their call exceeds OHS levels for safe exposure.
XL > ewww, in all the time I have spent there I never saw one.
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