There are a lot of white cockatoos around Canberra streets, perhaps more than in the
usual winter. Each morning they are at work on the nature strips
around Red Hill, Narrabundah and Griffith,
sometimes eating acorns under the pin-oaks, sometimes attacking the roots of
the plentiful weeds on the neglected verges. They are mobile. This
morning at 10 am there were more than 300 along about 500 metres of Sturt Street;
by 1030 there were only a dozen or so. You can easily approach to within
a couple of metres of these birds that are so wary in open country. About
12 Little Corellas, possibly our town birds, were spread throughout the
congregation, mainly in isolated pairs and not flocking together. In past
years I have seen as many as 70 corellas in a single-species flock, and I think
that represents a passing influx of a different kind. I noticed one
long-billed, forming a pair with an obviously young little corella.
In Canberra, I
have never seen more than 2 long-billeds at the one time, although I know
others have reported groups. About half the time the long-billed I see is
banded; one around here has a wide metal band, and the one seen today has a
narrow one (below). The long-billed had a distinctive feeding technique,
using its long bill to excavate holes deep enough for its head to disappear into
them. It appears to be seeking the little bulbs that grow at the base of
some urban weed, and indeed can be seen tossing one in its mouth in one of the
below snaps.
