Showing posts with label cockatoos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cockatoos. Show all posts

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo


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Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
This friendly parrot visit Australian gardens and wander around searching for seeds. One of the most common species are Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. The bright yellow crest is its most notable feature. Another is its squawky screech which is ideal for mimicking the human voice.

The birds nest in woody areas breeding in tree hollows. Three eggs are the norm for each clutch and they hatch in 30 days. Adults and young are attacked by predators such as owls, goannas, currawongs, butterbirds and ravens. When feeding, several birds stand guard and let out a very loud warning squawk.
◆ Australiana 
 
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Wild Cockatoos Are Swearing at People

Australian wild cockatoos have been "infiltrated" by domesticated cockatoos who have escaped. Wild birds are copying words learned by escaped household pets. Cockatoos are not the only wild birds being affected in this way. Galahs and corellas shout out words that startle people. Escaped birds breed with their wild counterparts and chicks learn to talk from parents.

The parrot family is extremely good at mimicking sounds they hear. Songbirds and hummingbirds can also do this to a degree. The problem is cockatoos and parakeets are social animals. To wild birds a word is just a new sound to be learned and used socially. Human babbling to learn language is called subsong in birds, where chicks learn by trial and error.

Like humans, cockatoos continue to learn "words" all through their lives. "Natural" cockatoo sounds go together to form a language which has its own grammar. Human words are being integrated into this language.

A pet bird may only hear a word once and the word is remembered for life, particularly swear words that are spoken with some gusto.
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Wildlife