The cockatoos are the most intelligent of birds. They have a sense of humour,
play games, carry grudges and can suffer from neuroses (feather plucking, for
instance). They make terrific pets although they are in the habit of living
slightly longer than humans. Once you understand their habits and behaviours,
such as head bobbing movements, you can develop a good relationship with a wild
mob of them and we have. If we don't feed them, they will hunt around the house
looking through the windows until they see us and then tap on the window with
their beaks. They will ignore my son as he never feeds them.
Lorenz has some flavour of their call but it's even more worse than that.
Imagine a raucous crow call amplified by a factor of a hundred. They'll us it
to call in their mob when food is available so at first you have a pair and
suddenly twenty. Or just to wake you up in the morning. Or to settle an
argument. Or to voice their disapproval at something you've done. Or just
because... Their beak is strong enough to rip wood, cut line and sever my
satellite connection on a couple of occasions. I think they disapprove of my
viewing choices.
When they aren't at my place they hang around local street corners, drinking,
smoking and screeching at pretty girls.
I once saw one at a Jardiland in France with a price tag of five thousand euro.
When I got home, I revalued my back yard. Quarter mill., easy.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 09/06/2011, at 7:27 PM, Brian Swale wrote:
> Andrew sent us a delightful photo of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos.
>
> Many people may not realise that they are quite intelligent; take a look at
> the
> top 3 entries of
> http://www.brianswale.com/zuikoholics/
> which are scans 3 pages from of the book "King Solomon's Ring" by Konrad
> Z. Lorenz; 1952.
>
> Enjoy!
--
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