Sulphur Crests~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life

and golden tails,

feast on pine cones,

by bush lagoons.

Raucous flocks,

rest on scribbly gums.

While a curious cockatoo,

climbs down to me.

Cheers to you from Australia’s gorgeous sulphur crested cockatoos~

Note: Scribbly Gum are a type of NSW eucalyptus tree that have distinctive scribbles on their bark left by larval scribbly gum moths.

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217 thoughts on “Sulphur Crests~”

  9. The scribbly marks remind me of the marks in the posts of my childhood yard which were made, iirc, by carpenter ants. Funny how memories come back.

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    1. I especially love the name! We have lots of eucalyptus near The Holler, imported from Oz long ago, and now in old forests thriving and grown quite huge. დ

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  19. I love the yellow around their vents that match the yellow of their crests! Parrots are the most fascinating birds. Thank you for a close-up look at these beauties, Cindy!

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  20. The cockatoos look so intelligent with their expressive faces (unless I’m anthropomorphizing). In any event, they’re beautiful birds. I like the Scribbly Gum tree, too!

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    1. You are completely correct. They are super intelligent birds and can develop huge vocabularies and learn all sort of complicated things. They have excellent memories. დ

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  30. It is the beauty and intelligence of these birds that sadly lead to some of them ending up in small cages as ‘pets’ – the worst kind of torture for any flying bird! Having seen a number cooped up like that, these photographs give me great pleasure as the ones you have photographed have space and can make their own decisions – you have a wonderful knack of getting the right ‘poses’ for your bird photographs.

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    1. “the ones you have photographed have space and can make their own decisions.”
      You get it. Completely.
      This is why I go to Australia. The first time there I was confounded. I saw flocks of expensive ‘pet’ birds in the wild.
      Making their own decisions.

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    1. Hope you don’t mind a drop in. The Sulphur Crested Cockatoos mate for life. And even if a partner dies they will usually stay alone. They can live till they are 80yrs old in the wild (captivity up to 120yrs). And the only way to tell male from female is their eyes. Males and females look alike, only up close and in strong light can it be noticed that the eye of the female has a lighter, reddish-coloured iris. Males have very dark brown irises. From a distance, eyes of all birds look black. Males have slightly larger heads, and stand taller than females, but the birds have to be seen in pairs for this difference to be noticeable. And their bite is very powerful, about 350 psi. 🙂

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      2. Oh I so love all this new information! I had no idea they mate for life. In many ways, birds seem more highly evolved than humans. Thank you very much for all these fascinating factoids & cheers to you დ

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      1. I think it’s been about 4 years now, but we are talking about a family reunion Christmas 2021. Fingers crossed, though these days I don’t get attached to anything in the future.
        A.

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  49. These are so pretty! For some reason, they look like wedding birds, probably because of their pure white feathers. Thank you, Cindy, for introducing them to me!

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    1. They do look like wedding birds and they mate for life, so maybe there is a connection!! I am very happy to make the introduction and pleased you like your new friends დ

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  50. Anonymous

    “Scribbly gum trees” and their “scribbly bark” send me soaring with desire to have invented these phrases.

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