Dye spots on Cockatoo Backs

[Lucy Aplin via Canberrabirds <>]

Hi Peter, Susan and Chris,

That is my lab group's research project (the Cognitive Ecology Group at the Research School of Biology, ANU). We are measuring social networks and foraging ecology in the north-side Canberra cockies, with dye-dots on the backs to identify individuals. We use these as a non-invasive alternative to trapping and banding - the dots last for around 3 months, and the birds show no reaction to it, while they tend to chew off other marking methods. 

We have 800+ birds individually marked from ANU to Watson; I've attached an example photo, of "MGO" (Maroon, Green, Orange). The first colour indicates the roost of origin, and some birds only have the single roost colour (as we ran out of unique combinations after 800): 

Red or Pink = ANU roost

Black = MacArthur Ave

Violet = Lyneham Wetlands

Green = War Memorial

Blue or Light Blue = Watson Pottery

Orange = Blue Gum Primary (Hackett)

Maroon (brown) = Mt Painter Bicentennial trail

We are doing direct observations, but also really appreciate public observations to help us build roost-level home-ranges! As Peter said, some of the colours are a bit tricky to distinguish, but if you take a photo of the back and tell us where and when, we'll identify it and add it to our dataset. You can email us directly at , or download our mobile phone app "BigCityBirds" and report there.

I believe Julia Penndorf (postdoc in the group) is giving a talk at the COG meeting in October, so if you attend, you'll hear more there! 

Cheers,

Lucy

PS - we worked in central Sydney from 2019-2021, however the occasional reports of entirely blue or pink cockatoos are definitely not us. We also think they are likely from road-side chemicals or coloured weed-spray by councils. 

---

From: Canberrabirds <> on behalf of CF Ledger via Canberrabirds <>
Sent: 05 July 2023 05:22
To: Susan Robertson <>
Cc: <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Dye spots on Cockatoo Backs

 

Hi Peter and Susan,

We are also seeing a couple of cockies marked that way here in Hackett. Thanks for the tips.

Chris Ledger


> On 5 Jul 2023, at 11:30 am, Susan Robertson via Canberrabirds <> wrote:
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> There is a research group at the Research School of Biology ANU with a project called CleverCockies who are marking cockies as you describe.  I have met them in Campbell.  You can contact the group at
>
> @BigCityBirds1 on Twitter
>
> I have had some trouble contacting them on this but you may have more success.
> Good luck,
> Susan Robertson
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of Peter Miller
> Sent: Wednesday, July 5, 2023 10:54 AM
> To:
> Subject: [Canberrabirds] Dye spots on Cockatoo Backs
>
> HI Everyone,
>
> Apologies if this has been answered before. A neighbour showed me pictures of a number of SC cockatoos that have been marked with small spots of different coloured dyes in the middle of their backs-orange, blue, purple I think from memory.
>
> I wondered if it was a cheap identification/marking method but the markings didn't seem to be unique, at least a couple of them had the same colour combination although they might still have been different enough to differentiate them if you knew them well...
>
> Vaguely similarly, I remember a few years ago there was a case of blue cockatoos in Sydney where the birds had perhaps been accidentally dyed with a road spraying chemical but these spots are small and localised.
>
> Thoughts...
>
> Peter
>
> PS re I also went for a wander near the seed node on Majura on the off-chance the Babbler might be around -drew a blank :(
>
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