We have a Cockatoo that visits our yard regularly. It also has very few
feathers. We believed that this was due to old age. But your note does
raise a few questions in my mind. We live in Townsville and it may be
possible that something similar to what you describe is happening to the
population around here.
Is it normal for older birds, e.g. Cockatoos, to loose their feathers?
Is it normal for Cockatoos to not except older birds into the local
community? We have noticed that the older/featherless one is nearly
always chased from the bird feeder by the others, and generally acts
timid around the others.
Regards,
Graham Cheetham
Townsville
> Quite a lot of our local Sulphur Crested Cockatoos seem to be affected
by the disease where all their feathers drop out - I thought
> this was confined to cage-birds but it seems to be rampant in the wild
population (Cairns Northern Beaches) at the moment.
> Should (or can) something be done about it? Should National Parks be
approached to shoot the affected birds to stop the disease
> spreading further? Any thoughts?
>
>Ian Cowan
>Clifton Beach
--
Graham Cheetham
Townsville, Australia
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