I just had the privilege of seeing a trio of yellow tailed black cockatoos fly over!! i am so excited, I have never seen these birds around here for more years than I can remember. I first recognised them from their weird call as they flew over. The local sulphur-crested cockatoos seemed to get excited as well, screeching as they flew over. Unfortunately the event was spoiled by angry magpies attacking the sulphur crested cockatoos and the black cockatoos were also attacked by noisy miners. The yellow-tailed black-cockatoos landed on the nearby gum trees but were soon driven off. :-(
Another vagrant visiter that I saw today was a eastern rosella. I often see them but they never usually come to our home.
I am glade I have seen these magestic birds, I take this as a good sign that I will see them and many more again.
Thank you for reading.
-cooee
That's great to see those birds that you haven't seen in a while. I am a big fan of the Yellow-tailed black and it is unfortunate they get harassed so much by the smaller birds.
Keep an eye out and you never know what you might find.
Cheers, Owen.
I have just seen about a dozen or so in Ashfield Park and now in my backyard, I have never seen these birds in Sydney. What a sight (and sound).
Here in the blue mountains we are privileged to have the YTB cockatoos visit us regularly this time of year. At Wentworth falls you can see upto 50 or so birds flying across the skies & often see them in a shea oak or pine trees. Ive spotted also for the last 3 years a pair plus 1 young of Glossy Blacks on Tablelands rd in Wentworth falls. They should be their again this year hopefully. luv .em.
On a sadder note only last weekend i realised the YTB cockatoo i could hear down the road from me in Lawson NSW was actually in a cage, a cage no bigger than a mini moke. i was just devastated, im not sure whether to plan an escape. the owners are not home on a regular basis, i'm not sure what to do, i know trespassing is illegal. But for such a big bird it is not a good life. Even the enclosure they have at Taronga Zoo is not big enough to house 2 YTBs. cheers daz
if your happy when your birding, flap your wings.
My God!!! What a SHAME on the owner of that bird mrtattoo. How could someone be so cruel to do that to such a majestic bird! Trespassing is illegal but I am pretty sure that so is animal cruelty. Maybe call your local council and inform them about the bird.
It sickens me seeing people careless about the world around them. I hate how kids take no care in the life of animals. It makes me mad seeing people just throw there rubbish any where or attack animals etc. Sadly, we can not do anything to change this. All my life I have been trying to convince overs around me to care for the world but they would never listen.
I agree with cooee, contacting your local council would probably be your best course of action. Regardless even if did free it, it is probably a store-bought bird and wouldn't be able to fend for itself in the wild. With any luck they won't have a license and it will be removed and put into a better place with fines for the owners. Naturally, being the local council you might wait months before they actually achieve anything, but it's your best option, or perhaps the RSPCA if it is clearly not fit for keeping a bird of that size.
thanks for yr ideas, i have a friend who works with the rspca so i will get in touch with her & go from their. yes it is a shame that people some times just dont get it, we just have to lead by example, dont we.
if your happy when your birding, flap your wings.
I like the RSPCA idea. From what I've observed they're far more responsive than the slow-grinding, derrier-covering bureaucracy of government at what ever level. (And I used to work in the government so I should know!)
Yes, cooee, it's frustrating trying to change irresponsible behaviour in others. I agree with mrtattoo that leading by example is often the most helpful approach. It often takes heaps of time before there's any result. Often there's no result but it's the best we can do in some circumstances. Sometimes engaging people in general conversation & asking general questions about the issue that concerns us can cause "irresponsible" people to think about what they're doing.
From my observation, many of these people don't even see that there's an issue because they've seen so little responsible behaviour when they were growing up so they're unaware of an alternative.
For me, if I don't think the "irresponsible" person is interested in changing then I just have to accept the situation & do something more productive - like ringing the RSPCA!
Yes you are right Woko and mrtattoo, but sometimes the circumstances will never change. We just have to keep trying and trying until the irresponsible people open their eyes to what they are doing.
oh yes, RSPCA, we call them the"toothless tiger", they are so restricted in what they can do,and none of their actions can be fast, because so many laws prevent them from doing things. My daughter and her friends reported 25 starving horses some time ago.Mares with foals, pregnant mares, yearlings etc. All the RSPCA could do, ask the farmer to feed them, and they would come back to check on the horses. That afternoon, my daughter, some fiends and I , organised floats. We drove over to talk to the farmer . Eventually, he sold the sick horses for $10 each. That night, all the horses drove out the gate. All it needed was some initiative! Sadly out of the 25 horses only 5 are still alive, the rest was too sick, had to be put down, or died. Sometimes you need people to stick their necks out , and ACT ! (I have done that all my life!) M-L
M-L
Hey MrTattoo Id like to know what happens (if anything) with the YTB in the cage, I work for Customs and do my best to stop wildlife trade internationally, Im very harsh on CITES regulations and enforcement and ensure those I work with are too..........
SouthCoastNsw
hi everyone thanks for your comments. My first plan of attack is to visit the owners & try to reason with them. Re Amateur. i do agree that it may be store bought & it may not survive if freed. Ive spoken to the ranger & he will call in to see the owners aswell. Re Araminta. Ive spoken to the RSPCA, even though they do acknowledge keeping such a large bird in a cage is not good, they cant do anything unless it is unhealthy or in distress. (go figure) If all else fails i will do a pamphlet drop in the community of Lawson to make people aware & try to ensure that the bird is cared for the best i can. Re OceanPeregrine. Gee youve got an interesting job, trying to stop international wildlife trade, i might have to look into that, im looking for change in my work life.
cheers everyone will keep u updated, " it wont happen over night, but it will happen" daz
if your happy when your birding, flap your wings.
Well done mrtattoo, with all the laws and rights we, and animals have these days,personal engagement and swift action is still needed sometimes. I still remember taking part in "night actions" freeing battery hens.And now we all got the message, how cruel it is for chickens to be kept in small cages in huge numbers. We can buy free range eggs in every Supermarket. Back then everyone thought our actions were radical,we risked to be arrested.
Good luck, and success helping the unfortunate bird!!
M-L
Yay ....go Mrtattoo .... tear down that cage.....doesn't he have to have a licence or something to keep one anyway???
god knows what I would do if I saw my all time favourite bird in a mangey cage in someone's yard >'x ....... go an get him ...we'll all put in for your bail MrT LOL B'>
Re : Woko "slow-grinding, derrier-covering bureaucracy of government at what ever level" ..... :') love it!
PS My views in no way represent those of this Forum or Birds Australia ..... I am not speaking as anything but Birdie ( not the Moderator either) LMAO
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Well done, mrtattoo. Looks like I was being far too negative. Your strategy could well bear fruit. At the very least it'll raise awarenes about what some people do to our native wildlife. Good on you for being prepared to put in the time & effort. As Richie Benaud would say: "Maaaaaaaaaaarvellous."
And thanks for the feedback, birdie. It's nice to know someone else shares my view of the way things don't operate. Some people think I'm a cynic (especially my government bosses) but as Sir Humphrey Applebee once said: "A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist."
....and me, I waited all afternoon for someone from Wildlife Vic, to come and shoot the suffering Wombat in my garden. I sent them photos and everything they asked for.She is blind, and has Mange. The Wombat was infont of my kitchen window all afternoon, I rang the person 3 times. They never turned up! As birdie and I say, they sit on their arses(sorry), get payed and don't even bother. All my life I've been an idealist and activist.I hate inaction!! But slowly the cynism and realism is catching up on
me! My neighbour came, but his riffle didn't work.So, the poor Wombat has to suffre an other day?
Oh, they rang a minute ago, how is the wombat? It's bluddy dark now, isn't it? What idiots?
M-L
Shame to keep birds in cages. Period. Not illegal though sadly and perhaps your YTBC is a cage born bird. Still damn sad if you ask me. If you think about how dumb people are, how is this? Our local WIRES branch (Blue Mountains) had another Red-tailed Black Cockatoo come into care from Springwood. Apparently the owners had to move house and they just let it go free. Smart aye? I always thought birth control was useful, especially for morons like those people.
Marie-Louise.
Not sure how Wildlife Victoria are compared to WIRES, but WIRES is a mostly volunteer organization who rely on public support ($) and a network of volunteers to keep them running. If Wildlife Vic is the same (it appears so from their website), it's a bit unfair calling them names etc just because things cannot happen quickly for your convenience (I know you care about the animal). From my own experience within my own branch, it can be very frustrating to find ANY available member at ANY given time to rescue or go to help an animal or MOP (member of public). Volunteers like me have a normal life to live, normal day-to-day responsibilities and financial commitments yet no one gives us any reimbursement for our own money we spend feeding, treating (sometimes we even pay some vet charges out of pocket), housing, driving all over the place etc. Often people think we work for WIRES, which is crap. We do it because we love animals and genuinely want to help, I guess Wildlife Vic probably want to do the same and have the same frustrations themselves. You probably understand. If not, you should join them and experience the organizations yourself and see how it is in real life when you really want to help and send help and just cannot, because the organization is unable to find a single soul to go and assist. It really sucks, but that's how it is, and often. :-(
I saw another flock the time it had 12 birds in the flock. The more birds in the flock the more majestic it seems! What a sound!
We have regularly seen 6 Yellow-tails (2 pairs plus 2 juveniles) this summer in the Blue Mountains - I can't seem to get away from them anywhere! Down the south coast on holiday a flock of >45 birds greeted us every morning.
re: the released pet: I find that particularly bizarre as I believe a Red tailed black cockatoo is worth over a grand or similar in aviculture.
And quite priceless in the wild, zosterops.
Certainly I concur,
Though i can't say i support the willy nilly liberation of aviary birds on morals grounds of 'birds should be free'* as most will not survive anyway, but especially outside their natural range as this misguided liberation and more frequently accidental escapees and deliberate releases have led to the establishment of bulbuls, nutmeg mannikins, barbary doves in Adelaide, rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets, sulphur-crested cockatoos, goldfinches, red-browed finches, long-billed corellas in Perth, long-billed corellas up the east coast, rainbow lorikeets and little corella in Tasmania, scaly-breasted lorikeets in Melbourne etc etc.
Recently I saw a red-collared rainbow lorikeet (northern aust. subspecies) in a mixed flock of local rainbows in Melbourne.
* though i agree that keeping birds in small cages is cruelty.
I've heard rumours of both species establishing (small localised populations in the greater Sydney area).
Why would that be, Lachlan?
Perhaps they would make a pleasing change to common mynas?
Well there's certainly no Major Mitchell's/Red-tails in the mountains (upper at least)