An Eclectus and Greencheek’s unique friendship

by Kirsten Badham

Winter on the Australian Atherton Tablelands is a beautiful time of year, the days are crisp and cool, and the ground sparkles with early morning frost.  Our parrots wake at dawn and greet the day with exuberance, calling to their friends and catching up on the nighttime gossip.  The day quickly warms and our kids make the most of the balmy weather, but come nightfall, the temperature drops rapidly.

Our male eckies take refuge in their partners nest-box and can be heard talking quietly to each other as they settle down for the night.  Our adolescent parrots form a tight bundle of red and green, cuddled side-by-side with their little heads tucked firmly behind their wings.  However it is the smallest parrot who claims the very best position.  Gizmo, the Green-cheeked Conure, sleeps nestled under the wing of his long-time friend Quasi, an Eclectus Parrot.

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Urban cockatoos

by Allen Friis

Here in Australia, bird lovers are spoilt when it comes to observing our different species of parrots and cockatoos.  There is hardly a spot on the map that is not inhabited by at least one of these birds.  Not only is it easy to observe most of our cockatoos, but they can be seen in a lot of cities and towns all around Australia.

Where I reside in the Hunter Valley, NSW, numbers of resident cockatoos have steadily increased over the years.  Forty years ago there was not even a galah in the residential areas.  Now we have Galah Cockatoos, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Little Corellas, Long-billed Corellas and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos living, and sometimes breeding, in town.

With an increase in the human population, large tracts of woodland are being cleared to open new sub divisions.  It seems to me that there is no consultation with concerned residents and the bulldozers just go in and destroy everything.

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The cause of most behavioural problems

by Sally Blanchard

Over the years I have done many in-home and telephone consultations and with most of them I was called because one of two behavioural problems became unbearable - biting and screaming.  I usually ask how long these behaviours have been causing problems.  The answer is often that they have been escalating for some time but have finally become too much for the callers.  If I have been contacted about aggression, I ask the person if the parrot is also screaming.  If they have called about screaming, I ask about biting.  It is not unusual for the bird to be doing both, and there may be other more subtle behavioural problems too.

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