fbpx

Cockatoos Like Crocodiles

Cockatoos Like Crocodiles

Black cockatoos' beaks are stronger than a crocodile's jaws. They can also pick up pinecones, fly up a good 30m and use my cat for pinecone grenade target practice. All wildlife in Australia is trying to kill us. Black cockatoos just seem to enjoy it more than most.

Where I live, there are two main types – the white tails and the red tails. Officially, they're Carnaby's White-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) and the Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus bansksii) and they're both incredibly noisy. They fly in flocks, mate for life and they're highly endangered.

Red Tails

A small flock of forest red tail black cockatoos pop up in See You in Hell (though the demons deny their existence) and raises Hell in Mel's backyard. They seem to like doing the same at my place, so it's fairly easy to get photos of them.

It's easy to tell the females from the males – the blokes have a stripe of solid red tail feathers, while the girls have a speckled red, yellow and black stripe in their otherwise black tails. These birds mate for life and can live for up to fifty years.

Female forest red tail black cockatoo
Female forest red tail black cockatoo
Male forest red tail black cockatoo
Male forest red tail black cockatoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crushing Beaks

It's hard to believe that a cockatoo's beak has a greater crushing power than a crocodile's jaws – I mean, crocodiles can snap bones. Yet these birds have gumnuts for breakfast and they shred through the tough shells of the nuts like you wouldn't believe. Just like the biologist in See You in Hell says – you can tell what sort of cockatoos were there by the mess they leave behind. And I mean the butchered gumnuts – each species has a slightly different shaped beak, and the beak-marks are so distinctive you can tell what sort of cocky molested the nuts on its quest for a tasty meal.

Welcome to my place – just beware of the birds in the backyard!

Loved this? Spread the word


About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.
She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray-drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.
Sensationalist spin? No - Demelza tends to take a camera with her so she can capture and share the moment later; shipwrecks, sharks and all.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.

Demelza Carlton

Related posts

A Quarter Million and Counting

​Read More

Interview With the Devil: Luce Iblis, CEO

​Read More

Interview With An Angel: Melody Angel

​Read More

Mammoths and Megafauna, Oh My!

​Read More


Love free books? Take this quiz and get up to 9 free books perfect for you!