This is my response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt of 5 June 2018  —  Flummoxed

From time to time during Winter, we will leave some seed out for the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos.  My son is under instruction to feed them no more than once a week so that they don’t become dependent on us.  There is no way you want 50 cockatoos hanging around chewing on everything in sight.  I swear cockatoos can count because every week at about the same time, the cockatoos would congregate in the front yard and make a terrible racket until we came outside with the seed.  Often we would refuse to feed them then because it is not the sort of behaviour we want to encourage.  They seem to know when we are home, and appear to wait for my son to return home.  I suspect they look out for him.

One day, this fellow arrived on his own.  He clearly had not read the memo regarding the feeding schedule.  He squawked and carried on something shocking, and when I refused to accede to his demands, he jumped onto the window ledge and started tapping on my window to attract my attention.  He was completely flummoxed by my dismissal, either that or very hungry.

cockatoo2

Cockatoos are such intelligent birds. and can live up to 100 years in the wild.  I would consider myself lucky if I had the memory of the cockatoo.  I do think we need to reconsider the term bird-brain.

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34 thoughts on “What’s the Meaning of This?”

  3. I had a friend who had a cockatoo. She was brilliant and so lovable. I would love to see hundreds of them hanging out together, but I get why it’s not something you want in your yard every day. And definitely. “Bird brain” should be a compliment.

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  4. Such a lovely cockatoo! But I can understand that feeding them on a daily basis really isn’t something to be encouraged with these. Poor guy for having missed the memo though. 😉

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  6. We don’t see cockatoos in our garden, although we used to see a lot of them out at the farm and they weren’t welcome guests as they usually wanted to eat the olives. Yes, ‘bird brain’ is really quite rude, isn’t it. I’m sure the birds that visit our garden are smart enough to know other places to go.

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    1. I did get quite cross, Jane, when we installed a beautiful letterbox that I had made, and the first thing the cockatoos did was take a chunk out of it. This was after have the crappy old letterbox for 20+ years and they never did anything to that one!

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  7. I think birds might have a sort of radar or maybe telepathy. You start out with one bird but as soon as any food is produced his whole extended family arrives within minutes. I do love to see a flock of cockatoos but no, I would not want them congregating in my garden. There are a few around here but they tend to keep to the nearby gum trees on a nearby farm so I just see them overhead and hear them shrieking at each other sometimes.

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  8. I read this at work and busted up. Tapping on the window: “Hello? Anyone home? I know you’re in there!” I laughed so hard. Really–bird brain? Pretty smart fellow, if you ask me.

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  9. I am in awe that you have wild cockatoos living in your area! They are gorgeous. Still, I don’t think I’d want fifty of them in my front yard at one time either.

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