Cockatoos

Cockatoos are ubiquitous around Melbourne, and we have a love-hate relationship with them.  They are beautiful, impressive birds, but they are also aggressive and vicious.

Our first experience with cockatoos was on our pre-move visit in April 2014.  While Joel was interviewing in Brisbane and Sydney, I took the kids on a bus trip to the Dandenongs.  One of the stops was a place you could feed the cockatoos.  Our guide warned us that the birds could bite, so watch your fingertips.  I thought he was joking.  He wasn't joking.

Before the tears.

The birds are really heavy, and land on your head, your shoulder, your outstretched hand, and for a little kid, balancing 5 kg on your hand is tricky.  Their claws are really sharp, as are their beaks.  Ruth got a nip on her finger.  Another girl in the feeding area got a chunk pulled out of her finger. I had deep scratches all over my arms. So many tears mixed with blood and bird feed.

Our second encounter was on holiday a year later in Lorne.  Our hotel regularly hosted cockatoo and kookaburra visitors.  The kookaburras kept their distance.  The cockatoos had apparently been fed before from our balcony, so they swooped in like the pack-hunting carnivores they are as soon as we stepped out of our room.  Ruth ran away screaming.

This one was a scout who signaled the others to attack.

This most recent encounter was at Ruth's teeball practice.  Hundreds of birds swooped in and around the trees near the infield and in the outfield.  They congregated first on the tree right above me, then to a tree in the middle of the man-made pond, then back to the field.  I've included a video that's interesting not for the view but for the incredible noise they made.  Play it at full volume to really join me in that moment.

The coin is about the size of a dime.