8 replies to this topic

[exislegirl]

Got up close and personal with some Black Cockatoos the other day:

Natalie

[Shane V]

How gorgeous are they? It's almost impossible to get that close to the ones down here. I notice there are ones with yellow spots around the face and ones without...is this a female/male thing or maybe a youngster?

[Mystic]

Very cool shots Natalie. Definitely not easy to get that close to them down here.

[exislegirl]

Thanks Shane & Mystic, glad you enjoyed them. Black cockies are usually very shy up here too... so I was very surprised these ones let me get close.

To answer your query, Shane - here's some info I lifted off a local wildlife website (Billabong Sanctuary):

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos:

The male is jet black, with a broad band of bright red in his tail and a dark grey beak.

The female is duller black, with yellow speckles on the head and breast, and yellow patches in her tail. Her beak is whitish in colour.

Immature birds resemble the female.

This bird is also huge-- one of our largest parrots. An adult is over 60 cm long (24 in) from head to tail.

This group I photographed the other day, was a male, female and young male. Looking back at the photos I posted, I see I didn't include any of the female, so am posting one now. She wasn't as keen on being photographed as the males, so I didn't get any great shots of her. The youngster was the one who came the closest to me... and the whole time kept making the 'feed me' noise, even while doing his own foraging.

Female:

Natalie

[Shane V]

Awesome Natalie. Thanks for the info.

[midgetyone]

Wow they are gorgeous. Very cool shots and so lucky Would love to be reincarnated as one of the red tailed

[exislegirl]

Thanks Chris, glad you enjoyed them.

Natalie

[Sharon]

Fabulous pics Nat xx

[exislegirl]

Thanks Sharon... glad you enjoyed them.

Natalie xx