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A summary:
What you observe is very likely what is known as
psittacine beak and feather disease. It affects parrots (including cockatoos). I
had not heard any suggestion before that it is related to the age of birds. The
following is a quick summary from Shephard (1994) Aviculture in
Australia. He suggests it mostly occurs in young birds, having
been passed on by infection from parents. It is a contagious viral disease with
no cure. It is probably terminal to birds that get severe symptoms, if not due
to direct impacts, then due to impact of loss of feathers or deformed beak or
claws. It tends to run in wild populations for a few years then decline, It is
also characterised by excessive growth and often deformation of the
beak.
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From:
Graham <>
To:
<>
Date:
Thursday, 21 February 2002 15:05
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Re:
Sulphur Crested Cockatoos
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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