In celebration of National Bird Day 2016, Barry Kent MacKay, Senior Program Associate for Born Free USA and lifelong bird enthusiast, is writing a special five-part blog series. Below is the third installment.
© Sonya HollandThere are approximately 44 species and subspecies of cockatoo. Let’s pick one: the white cockatoo, also known as the umbrella cockatoo or the white-crested cockatoo. This species shows up in more than a few of the “cute” bird online videos I so abhor.[teaserbreak]
The white cockatoo is in serious decline in the wild because of destruction of its forest habitat, but also as a result of the demand for cage birds. It has an amazing head crest of broad, rounded feathers which can be used in breeding displays. However, as this species forms very strong pair bonds, both males and females have little need to reinforce it. The crest is also spread aggressively, in an instinctive effort to make the bird look bigger and more fearsome to a potential rival or predator. In short, the spread crest results from high excitation. Prolonging such stimulus is not good for the bird.
Yet, I found a video of a man holding a prolonged ‘dialogue’ with a cockatoo who has been taught to imitate a common vulgarity. And, so, the man continues to ‘take offense’ at the bird on his shoulder. This is supposed to be amusing. However, in fact, the bird is in a state of alarm.
What should the bird be doing? Wild white cockatoos are found in the South Moluccan Islands, east of Borneo, west of New Guinea. They are found in forests, below a level of 600 meters above the turquoise seas of their homeland. They spend most of their time in the wind-ruffled treetops, dining on arboreal fruits and seeds, but they have been seen peeling back bark and checking epiphytic plants as though looking for insect larvae. This is a diet far removed from what their captive brethren are fed.
They nest in hollows in large trees high above the ground, incubating two to four eggs for just less than a month, when the eggs hatch. The parents take turns sitting on the eggs, and then caring for the young for up to two months. That is how the babies are meant to be—not taken from their parents to be ‘tamed’ or ‘imprinted’ as living toys for the amusement and enjoyment of humans who think it is funny to teach a bird to imitate human phrases.
These birds like to keep to small groups: usually about a dozen birds, but sometimes forming flocks of up to 50 or more. They normally prefer to forage in the tops of forest trees and perch in ’emergent’ trees that thrust up high above the surrounding forest canopy. They sometimes descend to lower branches in search of seeds, fruits, nuts, and berries in varieties far greater than are found in a package of commercial parrot seed mix.
They fly above the treetops with a strong, powerful, and rapid flight, often screeching loudly. That is how they are meant to live—not on counter tops, in rooms, in cages, or sitting on someone’s shoulder being videotaped in a prolonged state of excited alarm for entertainment value.
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry