Bird of the Week

Yellowtailed Black Cockatoo: These beautiful, large ( 60 - 69cm) and exurberant birds with their mournful, primal cry can be seen at varying times of the year, usually in a small flock, but are quite hard to photograph. I was lucky enough to see a small flock flying across Tallows and followed them down to where they were feeding. I also followed the thump of pinecones on the ground as the Cockatoos cracked out the seeds with those huge beaks and discarded the cones on the ground. I've never been able to get that close before but they seemed unconcerned as no-one else was around and they were far too busy feeding.

They are easily identified by their size, the yellow edge to their black feathers the yellow cheek patch and the frecked yellow on the underside of their tail. Their call is like a long drawn out 'kee-ow' and they flap their wings quite slowly in flight. The male has a pink eye-ring and the females is grey. They nest in a hollow in a tree.

They seem to have quite good communication with each other and call out to other members of the flock. They come into my backyard around September each year and seem to squabble over whose branch is whose, hang upside down, demolish all the pinecones and appear to be having a wonderful time.