Saturday, 26 September 2020

Rare Visitors

 Just recently a new species of bird has encroached on our garden and local neighbourhood. The bird is the yellow-tailed black cockatoo and I cannot remember seeing it in our district previously. However, our field guide to the birds of Australia has a map showing that it occurs locally. 

Maybe the recent drought, or the extensive bush-fires at the end of last year, have driven the species to seek out new and safer areas. During their search, they discovered Armidale and its kind residents who have bird-feeders (we have no less than three, each filled daily when we are here.

Until recently, my many long walks often encountered small groups of maybe 6 to 8 such cockatoos, but until this week our garden was deprived of their presence. Yesterday a pair discovered us and this morning we found 4 in the garden. I quickly took some photos, some shown below. They're very large birds compared to our other local species - perhaps 50% larger in size than the other species we keep feeding.




 

Alas, as I tried to capture them on film, they kept far away - almost hidden in the shade. Oh well! They gave Dot and me some fine as we tried to capture their movements.


AS

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