Coming right at you!
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Not least among Forest red-tailed black cockatoos’ qualities is their sheer zest.
A capacity to relish being alive is, I think, unevenly distributed between individuals within a species…and between different species/subspecies.
This capacity is often spectacularly evident in Calyptorhynchus banksii naso.
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The pictured female Forest red-tailed black cockatoo was a very relaxed individual.
Three other red-tails had also been dining on the relevant small, but fruit-laden “Cape Lilac”, but they fled when pedestrian traffic increased.
However, homeward-bound students from Bob Hawke High walking or cycling, directly below “her” tree – and some codger with a camera – did not bother this post’s heroine.
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In front, above, is a female red-tail.
Behind her is a male.
At the relevant time and place – 11.11 am on 01 May, in a so-called Cape Lilac tree, growing in a West Leederville lane – they were two of five red-tails, enthusiastically feasting on the same tree.
Debris was “raining” down, temporarily “greening” the asphalt.
One oft-evident aspect of same-species’ bird behaviour was conspicuously absent…as is very often the case with all three of southwestern Western Australia’s black cockatoos.
(equally magnificent, and also endangered, the other two are “our” planet’s only white-tailed black cockatoos)
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Unmistakably, the pictured individual is an adult male Forest red-tailed black cockatoo.
The tree he is trashing (but fear not: in the longer run, the apparently “ravaged” tree will in fact be all the healthier for the cockatoos’ efforts) is less than one minute’s walk from where I am currently sitting, at home.
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You may be less than surprised to know that this post’s image is not the photo that I had envisaged/intended!
Once a bird is airborne, one fiftieth of one second can prove a surprisingly long time – long enough to transition from “look at that bird!” to “nothing to see but sky”.
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As you can see, the head of the male of this subspecies is – beak excepted – a study in “basic black”.
And, as you will see in following posts, even if the flash of an individual’s tail – or part of his/her chest – is all you can see, it is very easy to identify an adult red-tail’s gender.
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This post’s photo was taken just one lane away from yesterday’s featured image.
As was also true yesterday, the individual you are looking at is definitely a female Forest-red-tailed black cockatoo.
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Pictured above is a small part of an artwork which occupies the entire lane-facing side on one West Leederville residence’s back fence.
It is a lovely, loving salute to/depiction of Calyptorhynchus banksii naso – the Forest red-tailed black cockatoo.
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I loved the little moment which the image captures.
Had I been in front of the mother and daughter – and thereby made my presence intrusive – the moment simply would not have happened…at that moment, at least.
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