Oh Pam, they are beautiful. I love that they are eating lasagna.

Ann

Oh, they are foodies too! They are gorgeous. I love birds, they have so much personality and can be so sarcastic when they learn to talk.

Pam, they are beautiful. I love birds too!

LOL, foodie cockatoos! Where is PKguy, he'd love those!

All I can think of is the old Baretta TV show where he always had that bird on his shoulder. I don't think he ever fed it lasagna, though. (grin)

Annie

I just had to come back to look at them again.

Ann

That's too cute!

Shelley S.

They are so adorable. I can't believe Australian farmers shoot them as nuisances. My mom has too Amazon parrots and they eat any and everything, although certain things like avocado are poisonous to them. I used to have cockatiels and they loved most people food too. Birds are amazing pets, but for their dander. Thanks for sharing, brought back great memories.

that's fun!!!

Lasagna eating birds!

Polly wanna Lasagna...LOL!

I'm a bit afraid of birds but they sure are cute!

They are beautiful!

I had the privilege of meeting a galah cockatoo (also called rose-breasted cockatoos) a couple of years ago, in a pet shop. She was hand-reared, tame and totally unafraid of people, and so sweet and gentle. I would have walked out of there with her if only I'd had enough money.

If you had a flock of a thousand of them (NOT exagerraiting for clarity) sitting in all the trees snapping off the branches, pooing on everything underneath (with poo like contact cement), screaming so loud you can't hear anything else, let alone yourself thinking, sitting on the lawns chewing up huge divots, YOU'D want to shoot the little darlings too. Actually, they're only allowed to shoot at them a very limited number of times in a year (like 10) to encourage them to move on. Personally I'd like to see the lot netted and shipped overseas to a pet shop near you :-) but there are heavy restrictions on exporting native wildlife.

So cute Pam! Just think of them as granbirds! LOL

LOL, Colleen, that's how I feel about white tailed deer. I see those pictures and everyone oohs and aahs about how cute they are, but they do horrible agricultural damage. I don't want them to be extinct but I'd love it if they were endangered. (grin)

I'll trade you a couple of deer for cockatoos. You could throw in a koala, if you like.

Annie

I'm glad you like them. My brother had another cockatoo that met an untimely death. He was squashed to death by a laptop computer. The computer was sitting on the back of a sofa and it fell onto the bird as he was walking underneath. It was very sad. That bird did an amazing array of tricks.

However, the first one bit anyone who came near it and could really do some damage. He screamed so loudly at night it made your ears ring. He also destroyed anything he could get his beak on. I would hate to think of a flock of hundreds of them!

So far these are very sweet and like to nuzzle against you. I hope they don't become biters.

Colleen, I'll swap you a herd of deer and a bunch of groundhogs for a couple of baby cockatoos. Annie is right. People who see the deer for the first time think they are beautiful. I think of them as furry vegetation destroyers. Many of the trees and shrubs around here are wider at the top than the bottom because the deer have browsed the bottom as far up as they can reach.

I'll attach a youtube video of my brother with the old bird, named Skylar. He says "stick em up" to the bird and the bird holds up his wings. Then my brother points a finger at him and say "bang" and the bird falls over backwards like he's dead. Sadly, now he really is dead!

Here is a link that might be useful: Skylar on youtube

Very cool Pam, I had a Red Headed Conure years ago named Fred Bird. He was part of a down payment on a used car. He loved to dance to Madonna with me on top of his cage. He talked a little..."get in your cage Fred" was one phrase he knew well...LOL.

David

Skylar IS cute :-)
Sorry, can't take the deer, they're officially vermin here and you have to get a special licence to keep them, along with all the special fencing...
Kangaroos are our deer, foreigners think they are so cool, and they are, but they can be very destructive, expecially if they leap out in front of your car... and God knows there's no shortage of most of them...

That youtube was precious. I've always wanted a bird, but been scared off by the talk of how often they turn into problems. Then I see one like Skylar and think "maybe"...

Grace

Darn it, Colleen, I was hoping you'd take a couple. LOL They're vermin here too, trust me. I usually refer to them as "rats on hooves".

so, I guess that means I'm not getting a koala? (grin)

Annie

Nope, koalas are IMO the smartest critter in Oz so we need to keep them all. Some years ago a politician picked one up and it promptly peed and pooed on him and IIRC, bit him. Now, is that smart or what ;-D ?

Colleen, I can relate. A park that we frequent with our ball teams, is in a retirement area. For as long as I can remember the park has been a refuse for parrots and cockatoos who were released when their elderly owners passed away. They congregate in the trees and build nests in light poles above the ball fields.

I imagine one or two at a time would be wonderful.

Just to reiterate: Yes, they are cute, smart and funny. However, they are a huge responsibility. They are extremely noisy (I mean ear-splitting), destructive (can and will destroy anything they can get a beak on), messy (feathers and large poops), can bite (really do some damage)and live long lives (40 -60 years -- do you have that much time left?).

Obviously, some people just turn them loose when they are too difficult to care for. No one wants a grown cockatoo because that is too late for them to bond with an owner.

For heaven sakes, don't get one on a whim. It is an enormous and lifelong responsibility to own an exotic bird.

I love that picture! So cute!
Sherry

dedtired - I keep coming back to look at the photos. They are adorable!

I get what you're taking about ownership, though. I did a story on a wildlife rehab person who tries to educate people away from owning exotic birds because they're generally not good pets and often arrive in this country through illegal trade. He ends up rescuing many of them that get dumped.

Our lovebird died today

I'm sad for my DH

I'm glad for my ears