From Field and Study: Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Feeding on Berries of Cape Lilac

2 Pages·1997·0.51 MB·

by  R H Stranger

Washing of a male Splendid Fairy- given in the Atlas of Australian
wren by a female - At our cottage Birds is Shark Bay, and some
in Denmark vve have a bird bath readers (particularly those with
set in remnant natural bush, the little experience of the Kite) may
habitat of many birds including a doubt this record, based as it is on
colony of Splendid Fairy-wrens a single sighting. However, the
Malurus spendens. bird’s call and the chestnut
In the warm weather the bird plumage and white head
bath is a popular sport for all the gleaming in the sunlight left no
birds such as Honeyeaters, room for uncertainty.
Twenty-eight Parrots. Red-capped I first met the Brahminy Kite
Parrots, Western Rosellas, Grey (then known generally as the
Fantails as well as the wrens. Red-backed Sea-eagle) on the Ord
It was noted that only the female River in 1944, when Kites and
wrens used the bath. After each Ospreys were seen patrolling
dip, instead of preening in the Carlton Reach - now inundated
vicinity as other birds did they by Lake Kununurra. In later years,
would fly into secluded patches 1 have seen the Brahminy Kite
of scrub. The answer to their flit frequently at Broome and in
into the scrub came on 1 February South East Asia, the most recent
1996, when my wife and I occasion being off Changi Beach,
watched a male wren being Singapore, a month earlier than
“washed” by a female. The female the Swan River sighting.
would splash into the bird bath - C.F.H. JENKINS, 22 Freshwater
then fly very "soggily” to the male, Close, Claremont, WA 6010
where she would snuggle up to
him and energetically fluff her
wet feathers and shake water Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
droplets onto him. The male then Feeding on Berries of Cape Lilac -
preened himself. The washing During the latter part of July 1996
operation was repeated two more while visiting Merredin, 1 noticed
times. that the Red-tailed Black
Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii
- PETER MCMILLAN, W.A.
was feeding on berries of Cape
Museum, Francis Street, Perth,
Lilacs Mclia azedarach growing in
WA 6000
the housing areas of the town.
The trees were devoid of foliage at
Brahminy Kite on the Swan River the time and the birds were
- When walking my dog along plucking the berries from their
Freshwater Bay foreshore early on stems, slicing through the flesh
13 February 1997, 1 was very and splitting the seed capsule
surprised to see a Brahminy Kite longitudinally, extracting the
(Haliastur indus) perched on the seeds and then dropping the flesh,
very top of a tall Norfolk Island split capsule and skin onto the
Pine growing near the base of the ground. Some of the berries
Claremont Jetty. The most dropped were split into two parts
southerly locality for this bird but most of those discarded were
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still joined at the stem by the skin. flocks and groups as the day
A few of the discarded berries still progresses. Conversely, towards
retained a seed or two and the evening the birds again form into
ground under the trees was one large flock. If this formula
lit ter sd with the split and can be applied to the cockatoos in
discarded berries. Merredin, then it is possible that
only the same 20 birds counted
During the first few weeks of
may hve been frequenting
August I continued to observe the
Merredin.
cockatoos feeding on the Cape
Lilac trees and I noticed that the During my return to Merredin on
cockatoos were not feeding at 16 September, 1 noticed that the
random on them. They had by berries from the lowest branches
now stripped the berries from the had also been stripped from the
top branches of the trees and had trees and over the three days that
begun to choose the berries from 1 was there, only one small group
the lower branches and were in of birds was seen.
the process of stripping these The seeds of the Cape Lilac berries,
completely. This seemed to apply though very small, are another
generally to all the Cape Lilac introduced food for this cockatoo
trees. in the wheatbelt, another being
the introduced Double-gee Emcx
The birds had obviously been
australis which in the northern
feeding on the berries for some
South-West Region may form up
time prior to my visit and local
to 99% of its diet (Blakers et al.
resident Jerry Driver confirmed
1984). One wonders if the birds
that the birds had been present in
have been forced onto this diet
the town for some time. The
from introduced plants because
largest number of birds in any
of a shortage of natural foods.
one flock was 20 but small groups
of three or so were commonly One or two Port Lincoln Parrots
seen. 1 was reluctant to estimate Platycercus zonarius may also feed
the number of birds present in on the beries of the Cape Lilac and
Merredin because observations by I have observed this both at
me in south-west Jar rah Merredin in recent years and over
Eucalyptus marginata forests several years at Hall’s Head,
showed that the birds begin the Mandurah.
day in one large flock and then -R. H. STRANGER, 28/76 East
progressively split into smaller Street, Maylands 6051
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