Here, unmistakably, is a male, with crest evident.
As you can see, he was clearly aware of our presence, but not troubled by it.
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If you only ever saw black cockatoos in flight, or eating, you could be unaware that their head feathers are “convertible”.
Thus engaged, the tops of their heads are smooth – an uninterrupted continuation from the back of the birds’ backs.
However, once a black cockatoo has a good look around, or is “socialising” whilst his or her feet are locked onto something solid….voila!
Suddenly, you are looking at a crested bird.
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Today’s featured image was taken a tiny moment after yesterday’s.
As you can see, our heroine’s beak has achieved its mission, and her tongue can now engage with the fruit.
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Today’s and tomorrow’s posts show the same female Forest red-tailed black cockatoo as her beak “deals with” one fruit on a so-called “Cape Lilac”.
Both posts also convey just how capable/impressive are her feet.
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This post’s heroine is the same individual who appeared in #6 in this series.
I suggest you zoom in/enlarge; the image showcases her “remarkable plumage”, and its water-resistance.
Unlike Monty Python’s “Norwegian Blue”, this is an actual, living, wild bird.
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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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