Sulfur crested cockatoo plays12/28/2023 It’s typically only noticed when it flowers in spring, producing pretty, pink and yellow-throated flowers. Onion grass ( Romulea rosea) is small and usually inconspicuous with grass-like leaves. Onion grass was the only item on their menu. I observed flocks ranging from nine to 63 cockatoos at seven sites along the Maribyrnong River in Keilor last July and August. While cockatoos feed on the fruits and seed of native species, they’ve adapted very quickly to the introduction of exotic species, such as onion grass from South Africa, which is plentiful and easy to harvest. Sometimes their play verges on vandalism as they follow tree planters, deftly pulling up just-planted trees and laying them neatly beside the hole. The birds are known to play with fruits, hang upside down on branches or perform flying cartwheels by holding a small branch or powerline with their feet, flapping their wings as they do loop after loop. Read more: Birds that play with others have the biggest brains - and the same may go for humans But they are resilient and adaptable birds, and have spread their range to cities and the urban fringe, where numbers are increasing. Where these forests and trees are being cleared, the number of cockies falls. They’re usually found close to water, nesting in woodlands with old hollow trees, such as river red gums, Eucalyptus camaldulensis. In late winter and early spring in many parts of Australia, flocks of sulphur–crested cockatoos can be seen grazing on the ground. Most of us see cockies whether we live in rural communities or major cities, but how much do you really know about them? Sulphur-crested cockatoos nest in old hollow trees. So if you have a large amount of onion grass on your property and are regularly visited by sulphur-crested cockatoos, it would be wise to let them do their weeding first. This significantly reduces the weed level and may make expensive herbicide use unnecessary. A flock of about 50 birds can consume 20,000 plants in a couple of hours. Onion grass is a significant weed, and I estimated in a recent paper that one bird gorges on about 200 plants per hour. While isolating in the suburbs of Melbourne, I wanted to find out why cockatoos return to the same places, and what they’re after. For some, the noisy parrots are pests that destroy crops or the garden, damage homes and pull up turf at sports ovals.įor others, they’re a bunch of larrikins who love to play and are quintessentially Australian.Īlong with other scientists, I had a unique opportunity during the COVID-19 lockdowns to study things that had intrigued me closer to home, perhaps for years. Shutterstock Gregory Moore, The University of MelbourneĪustralians have a love-hate relationship with sulphur-crested cockatoos, Cacatua galerita.
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