John - Apparently behaviour of this kind has not been reported for the SCC
either. The 'fed' bird certainly seemed adult, and the procedure matched
that reported for captive Gang-gangs.
Perhaps I should have given a fuller account. The male was above the female
on the perch and made head-bobbing movements while shifting its position
giving a restless appearance. There was no vocalising until the male
lowered its head and the female raised hers, when both would break into the
'ne-ne-ne-ne' sound which lasted for the few seconds of each feeding
transaction. There were 5-6 'feedings'.
I said 'breeding behaviour?' because it seems to me that this might be more
in the nature of pair-bonding and not necessarily foreshadowing nesting,
which might be months away. g
-----Original Message-----
From: John Brannan
Sent: Sunday, 5 July 2009 10:37 PM
To: Geoffrey Dabb
Cc:
Subject: Breeding behaviour?
Not sure if this is relevant, but I've seen the same behaviour a couple
of times between Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in their roost in Hawker over
the last few months. Like Geoffrey's observation, it was always around
dusk. Knowing nothing about courtship feeding, I had assumed that this
was parents continuing to feed particularly dependent young.
John Brannan
Geoffrey Dabb wrote:
>
> In a street tree at dusk there was repeated feeding between an
> apparent pair, both making the insistent begging call. Surprisingly
> HANZAB says of G-g courtship feeding 'not recorded in the wild'.
>
>
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