World Bird Wednesday - Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos

I’ve been wanted to get a really good look at these cockatoos for a while – I’d seen then before, but only from a distance, or when they flushed from the roadside. So seeing Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos close up, most days for a week was a real treat.

The first one I saw landed on a cable of some kind as we were having an ice-cream. People actually stopped to look at me, rather than look at the bird. I’ve seen myself in the mirror enough to know they were making a mistake.



Back to the bird! The birds with the pale beaks and stripped tails are females. The dark bill and solid red patch are the males. They have a wing span of well over 1m and they are very talkative! Standing under a tree with a flock of these birds feeding in it is like being outside in a hail storm. There is a constant rain of seeds, bits of bark and other trashed plant parts constantly falling from the trees. I have to say, it worth putting up with!


You can find more world birds here, and you can see the latest post on my other blog by clicking the Paying Ready Attention link on the RHS of the page.

Enjoy the birds.