COCKATOOS !

Those lovely, cheeky, funny, raucous, destructive birds that we love but cannot encourage. I would love to encourage them into my garden but in view of their destructive habits, there is no way I can because where I live, some people have done just that and have lived to regret it. They have put food out for these birds day after day and then gone away on holiday but naturally the cockies still turn up for their handout and a bored flock of hungry birds can get up to all kinds of mischief - such as excercising those beaks (and what beaks !) on the nearest wooden windows, doors, sundecks, fences, etc. One family returned home from holiday to find roughly $40,000 worth of damage to their house.

So, unfortunately, cockatoos are banned from my back garden although some still seem to find their way here.....but they fly off very quickly when they see me heading towards them - leaving it until I am within 3 or 4 feet of them before they do, though !



The best way to see these birds is to go to the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, and to take a bag of sunflower seeds with you. In the picnic ground at Audley Weir in the National Park you will usually find at least one cockatoo hanging around and as soon as he realises you have FOOD with you, he sends out the word and before you know it there can be over a hundred of his mates flocking in to have their share. They will fly to you and perch on you wherever they can and the only problem is how to keep them from digging their claws into you and to avoid their beaks as well !









You can see what I mean from the photos above.