Remember a couple of weeks back when a cockatoo chucked a stone from an apartment roof and smashed my car windscreen? All ended well, the windscreen was repaired and the car passed its annual registration inspection, which, as luck would have it, was due that week.
Most Aussies are well acquainted with the behaviour of these naughty parrots, but I thought my international followers might enjoy this light-hearted scientific look at what they are capable of doing. This from our public broadcaster, the ABC. Around one minute twenty seconds, you’ll get an idea of how the cockie managed to trash my windscreen.
The Reluctant Retiree 
Thank you for this follow up and video for your very ignorant international audience, Gwen. I’ve definitely learned something I didn’t know. What clever and naughty, or should I say playful, birds they are! Fascinating.
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I do have a soft spot for them, and their smaller, and not so naughty/playful relative, the corella.
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Wow I think these birds would certainly give crows a run for their money.
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Oddly enough, I’ve never seen them go at each other. But I have been watching some sea-eagle babies, and there is a magpie that swoops them every so often. Not sure why. Maybe it has its own nest nearby and just wishes these predatory neighbours would move on. Here is a link to the camera in case you are interested: https://sea-eaglecam.org/video.html
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My little grandsons and I visited Jack the cockatoo at the local pet shop once every week for a year. He belonged to the pet shop owner. We’d each say ‘hello Jack’ in a croaky cocky voice and have a chat. After a while Jack got terribly excited when he saw us walk through the door and croak hello Jack at us. It was a lovely memory while it lasted.
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What a lovely memory for you and the grandsons. I wonder if Jack is still awaiting your return?
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No, we were told that Jack was causing too much trouble p. The owner took him home.
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Poor Jack – sent to the naughty corner.
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Hi Gwen, I love these Cockies! They’ve never been unkind to us. When we lived in Killara, Lorikeets and Cockatoos would perch on the balcony which I thought was funny! They ate the sunflower seeds I left for them. My 21 month old granddaughter loves them and little skinks! Whenever we had guests from India, they were amazed by these large birds.
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Glad to hear you have embraced them and are pleased to show them off to visitors. By the way, are you familiar with the Asian Koel? It’s a type of cuckoo. It (or some?) have recently arrived for their southern migration. It keeps up a who-hooo? sound until it gets a mate. That can’t come soon enough 🙂
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Yes the Indian Koel!! It has a celebrity status in India!
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Well, I guess we’ll have this one around for a few months yet.
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Never knew. Never even thought about them since the only ones I ever saw were in a cage.
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That’s such a shame to cage them. They are active, social birds. They tend to get miserable if isolated from the flock. Then become liable to bite, and as you see from the video, that’s a strong bite!
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Fascinating. Our nephew and niece-in-law’s 11 year old budgie, Archie, has very recently learned to add supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to his lexicon.
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I can well imagine. One of the appeal with parrots is their ability to communicate.
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By the way, a budgie is not a parrot. But of course, you know that. I rushed that answer! But budgies are clever impersonators also 🙂
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Looks like a commission in the Air Force is underway for these bird bombers!
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And they won’t need much training! 🙂
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Not to mention a 100% mission success rate!
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Thank you for posting that they really are an amazing animal. There are times when you might see a paddock full of them maybe 1000 all at once and they just dig up all the tiny little bulbs and corns in the ground I can make a mess and of course they will ripTimber cladding of house. Specially holiday houses when you’ve gone away and you come back for the weekend and the windows are falling out because they rip the window frames apart
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I wonder if they are an exclusion in home insurance policies? Its funny how we have such love for such destructive birdies. But we do.
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