Western Corella
There is no sound in the world like a flock of cockatoos. If you have tasty tree in your backyard it won’t be uncommon for you to find it stripped bare by a gang of them from time to time. They must be fairly destructive in large numbers as there is a brochure out there on damage control.
There is a flock that loiters around Sandy Beach Reserve in Bayswater and they are magnificent.
I understand that there has been a distinction between the Long Billed Corella and the Western Corella, and so I am assuming that these are the Western species.
These are birds that will check you out from a safe distance, they make eye contact, but carry on with what they are doing. You can see them thinking.
There are a number of parks and people who keep these birds in cages. Having seen them busy socialising in these large groups it breaks my heart to think of these creatures isolated and unable to stretch their beautiful wings. I was in one such ‘wildlife’ park not long a go and the long line of caged bird that has been trained to speak left me in a funk for days.
I would not want to be on the wrong side of that bill either, and they are very long lived under the right conditions.
They graze in large flocks on the grasses, and when disturbed they all launch and wheel through the air together it like a gang of soccer hooligan grannies on a grand day out.
In my experience, where you see a Western Corella there is a fair chance you’ll also see a Little Corella. The Little Corella has a shorter beak and none of the red/pink plumage one the chest.
For more information see birdlife.org.au or www.birdsinbackyards.net.
