# Cockatoo wars



## nioka (21 March 2010)

Running parallel to the flying fox as a destructice native pest is the white cockatoo.

This week we have been invaded by hordes of these screaming pests. Just their screeching alone is bad enough but the damage they are doing makes them a pest. They chew at the patio rails, they wreck many garden plants and they to top things off they have decimated my pecan tree in a couple of days and completely ruined this years crop.

Most years we expect to lose about 10% of the nuts to the cockatoos but 100% is a bit too much to accept peacefully. So from todat they are officially on my pest list.


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## Julia (21 March 2010)

Nioka, what about covering your trees with bird netting?  I was losing my almost ripe passionfruit to parrots, covered the vines with the netting and that was instantly the end of the trouble.  Quite inexpensive in rolls at Bunnings.


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## bunyip (21 March 2010)

nioka said:


> Running parallel to the flying fox as a destructice native pest is the white cockatoo.
> 
> This week we have been invaded by hordes of these screaming pests. Just their screeching alone is bad enough but the damage they are doing makes them a pest. They chew at the patio rails, they wreck many garden plants and they to top things off they have decimated my pecan tree in a couple of days and completely ruined this years crop.
> 
> Most years we expect to lose about 10% of the nuts to the cockatoos but 100% is a bit too much to accept peacefully. So from todat they are officially on my pest list.




Nioka.....Here are a couple of suggestions that might be worth trying to get rid of those cockies.

My sister had trouble with aggressive magpies attacking their own reflections in her glass windows. The constant pecking at the glass just about drove her crazy. One magpie even cracked the glass when he launched himself bodily at his own reflection!

She solved the problem by getting a very realistic cardboard cut-out of a hawk in attack mode. The first rain wiped out the cardboard hawk, made it go all soft and soggy. So they got another one and traced its outline on a piece of galvanised iron, then painted it up in hawk colours.
Now they had a weather-proof hawk. They made up a second hawk as well -  now the magpies don't come near the window.
They regularly change the positions of the hawks, and sometimes display only one of them, sometimes two, the idea being to keep the magpies on their guard and stop them from becoming complacent about the hawkes.

Might just be worth a try with those cockies?

Second suggestion.....
Catch one of the cockies and stir him up by flapping him with a sock or something similar. Come to think of it, you'd better use a newspaper instead of a sock - if your socks are anything like mine you'd only cause the cocky to pass out or drop dead!
Have a tape recorder at the ready for when the cocky screeches his distress calls as you flap him. Play the recording through a loud speaker system any time the cockatoos come near - nothing scatters a mob of cockatoos like a distress call from one of their mates.

How to catch a cockatoo? Simple - here's a description of a trap we used for catching seed-eating birds when I was kid....
Use some light timber to make up a square frame. 
Cover the frame with chicken netting.
Put it on the ground near a tree where the cockatoos congregate, so they get used to seeing it.
Use a stick a couple of feet long to prop up one side of the trap.
Tie one end of a thin rope to the stick - the other end of the rope goes to your house or some other location from which you can give it a decent pull.
After the birds get used to seeing the trap, start putting grain on the ground beside it - the birdseed you can buy at supermarkets will do just fine.
Once the birds get used to being fed, gradually put the grain closer to the trap, and finally under the trap itself. When they start feeding under the trap, a simple yank on the rope is enough to drop the trap and snare them.

If you want to get really high-tech, you can put a couple of small doors in the top of the trap to make it easier to remove the birds without them escaping.
Make sure you've got something pretty sturdy on your hands before you put them anywhere near a cockatoo.....those bastards can bite like a wolfhound!

Make sure you're not being observed by anyone like IFocus or Bloveld or any of their greenie mates - you don't want to get dobbed in to the National Parks And Wildlife crowd!


Not sure if either of these suggestions will achieve the desired result - give them a go to find out.


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## newbie trader (21 March 2010)

nioka said:


> Running parallel to the flying fox as a destructice native pest is the white cockatoo.
> 
> This week we have been invaded by hordes of these screaming pests. Just their screeching alone is bad enough but the damage they are doing makes them a pest. They chew at the patio rails, they wreck many garden plants and they to top things off they have decimated my pecan tree in a couple of days and completely ruined this years crop.
> 
> Most years we expect to lose about 10% of the nuts to the cockatoos but 100% is a bit too much to accept peacefully. So from todat they are officially on my pest list.




Apparently getting cd's and hanging them from some string works well. Possibly in a few years the Germans/Americans will be able to help you out (don't ask me to explain).

N.T


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## Julia (22 March 2010)

Good Lord, Bunyip, those mechanisms seem complex.  Wouldn't just the netting over the tree do the job?


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## bunyip (22 March 2010)

Julia said:


> Good Lord, Bunyip, those mechanisms seem complex.  Wouldn't just the netting over the tree do the job?




Perhaps so, Julia. But netting a tree or two won't solve all the problems these birds cause.

Cockatoos don't just stop at damaging trees or eating the nuts off them. Nioka has outlined other areas where they're causing damage or being a nuisance.
I've known the buggers to perch on TV antennas in such numbers that the antenna collapsed, but not before the cockatoos made the red roof white with their excrement and chewed hell out of the wiring that ran down from the antenna.
I've seen them damage gardens by using their beaks to dig up lawns in search of grubs. I could name you many other examples of the destructive capacity of these birds.

In the outback areas where I've lived, we solved the problem by shooting hell out of them until they got the message and moved on. Obviously that's not an option if you live in a suburban area.

For all the problems these birds sometimes cause, I still have a soft spot for them and enjoy seeing them around and hearing their calls. Overall they probably do more good than harm, and play an important role in nature. That doesn't mean we shouldn't deal with them though, if they start troubling us.
Fortunately they're not in troublesome numbers where I live.


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## Happy (22 March 2010)

nioka said:


> ... So from todat they are officially on my pest list.





I can understand your rage, but:

Under no circumstances feed them mouldy bread as spores can adversely affect their lungs.


http://hubpages.com/hub/cockatoo_care


> Cockatoos are not fussy eaters; however, do not give your cockatoo avocados, chocolate, or alcohol in any form. Deep fried should never be given to a cockatoo, nor should salted treats such as potato chips, pretzels that have salt, and saltines that have been salted.





(After alcohol consumption they can hurt themselves misjudging distance making their aerial acrobatics when drunk)


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## bunyip (22 March 2010)

newbie trader said:


> Apparently getting cd's and hanging them from some string works well. Possibly in a few years the Germans/Americans will be able to help you out (don't ask me to explain).
> 
> N.T




If this is effective, then perhaps it works on the same principle as a solution to flys that I saw posted on the internet. 
The story goes that you get clear plastic food-storage bags, half fill them with water, tie off the top with some string, and hang them in doorways and windows through which flys enter your house.
The theory is that light is refracted as it passes through the water, and for some reason the flys can't cope with this and they steer clear.
I have no idea if this works, but if it does, and if the CD idea works on cockatoos, then perhaps the same principle is at play in both cases.
I must try out the fly idea sometime - I don't have any cockatoos to practice on! 
Geez - anything is worth a try if you're copping a pasting from thousands of aggravating pests!


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## IFocus (22 March 2010)

bunyip said:


> Nioka.....
> 
> She solved the problem by getting a very realistic cardboard cut-out of a hawk in attack mode. The first rain wiped out the cardboard hawk, made it go all soft and soggy. So they got another one and traced its outline on a piece of galvanised iron, then painted it up in hawk colours.
> Now they had a weather-proof hawk. They made up a second hawk as well -  now the magpies don't come near the window.
> They regularly change the positions of the hawks, and sometimes display only one of them, sometimes two, the idea being to keep the magpies on their guard and stop them from becoming complacent about the hawkes.




Good advice also if you can get a good recording of a raptor all the better.


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## nunthewiser (22 March 2010)

so.....let me get this straight...........

Nuke the cockys...........Nuke the Fruitbats...........Nuke the whales

Keep the Raptors


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## newbie trader (22 March 2010)

Let us know what you end up trying and if it works

N.T


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## bunyip (23 March 2010)

IFocus said:


> Good advice also if you can get a good recording of a raptor all the better.




Maybe we should make a recording of some of these radical greenie types.....they scream like raptors whenever someone proposes a development project or cuts down a tree or culls destructive wildlife.


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## nioka (23 March 2010)

nunthewiser said:


> so.....let me get this straight...........
> 
> Nuke the cockys...........Nuke the Fruitbats...........Nuke the whales
> 
> Keep the Raptors




Actually folks I am a conservationist (basically). I just want to control the cockies, reduce bat numbers and sustainably harvest the whales, kangaroos and the forests. I've planted thousands of trees. I have plenty of birds around and encourage them with plenty of trees for their benefit. 

Over the years I have found it necessary to DISCOURAGE those that come in pest proportions. I have a few special treatments that do work but they are not for publication and I don't admit to using them. I can't understand those that say "because it is a native it is sacred". 

Seems like there is no middle ground in these situations.


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## awg (23 March 2010)

I have planted many native and fruit trees that attract birds.

Recently some species have become a nuisance at times for various reasons.

Some simple things you can do to discourage them.

A) Hose them

B) Throw things at them, such as gravel, tennis balls etc

I have found that they are smart enough to learn.

Neither of the above are harmful or illegal, and are surprisingly effective, especially if you are around, due to retirement or home work.

They seem to particulaly dislike repeated surprise attacks with a strong concentrated jetstream of water.


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