Bare eyed cockatoo personality10/18/2023 ![]() ![]() Star learns all about the weather, the sun, the wind, the rain, the cold, the horse and donkey who walk by her aviary each day, her cockatoo neighbors and the cockatoos who free fly over her aviary, the vultures who soar above, the swallows swooping and swerving catching insects, the bats who come out in the evening to hunt those same insects, the bellowing of the cows at night, as well as the songs of the coyotes. Yet another environmental enrichment for Star is simply living outdoors in her aviary. I also harvest and install a variety of plant matter such as mustard seed pods, blackberry stems with berries, hawthorn berry branches with berries, ash tree branches with seed pods, barnyard grass, millet spray, crab apple branches with apples, and anything else that might be of interest to the birds. These serve as foraging opportunities for the cockatoos. I allow different weeds and grasses to grow in the aviary. Let’s take the availability to forage, for example. To that end, I have equipped Star and her parents’ aviary with a wide variety of enrichment. Environmental EnrichmentĪs described by the website Why Animals Do the Thing, “Environmental enrichment is the process of enhancing an animal’s environment to increase their physical activity, fulfill their psychological needs, and encourage engagement in species-typical behavior.” This is exactly what Star needs to develop into a competent, resilient, and confident adult. I’ll start off with the importance of environment enrichment and its effect on learning. Because there are so many things that affect Star’s learning progress, I’ll be focusing on only one influence in this article. Star needs to learn flight, of course, but also proper Bare-eyed Cockatoo vocalizations, fine motor skills, foraging, social skills, and much more. Someone, in this case, Star, learn about what works and what doesn’t work is Of course, we learn every single day and, watching Sometimes take for granted or don’t even think about how we and our fellowĪnimal friends learn. Learning in ActionĪbout watching Star grow is the marvel of seeing learning in action. During this time, the parents were acutely conscious of her movements and one or both would follow her everywhere in the aviary. Her progress was impeded by aviary living, however, and I’m sure if she were in the wild, her flight development would proceed more rapidly. Successfully landing on her goal perch was positively reinforcing for her so, of course, she’d attempt it again all the while becoming more competent in her landing skills.įrom ten days onward her flight mastery greatly improved. Behavior is a function of its consequences and Star was showing me exactly how that worked. Of course, with each new effort she was more frequently successful in landing where she wanted. Star Practices Flying and Landing on Perches that Move That didn’t deter her as she would gather her determination and try again. She’d pick out a destination, but sometimes didn’t accomplished her goal. She was kind of wobbly and there was not much umph in her propeller. When I observed Star’s first flights, it was like watching a butterfly. Gradually, Star started taking control of her new surroundings. (As of this writing, her tail has reached full length and she looks almost to be the same size as her folks.) She didn’t do much exploring the first few days and seemed content to stay by her mom’s side. Her tail had yet to reach full length so she appeared smaller than her parents. Bebe was sitting securely by her side and she was not letting Flash close to Star. When I first saw her, Star had already flown to the front of the aviary. I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking, after growing up looking at four walls and not much else. Neighbor cockatoos find a way into Bebe and Flash’s aviary? No, my slow wittedīrain figured out the third cockatoo was the baby!Īfter silently shouting for joy, I watched in amazement the little one taking in her new environment. Saw three birds instead of two sitting together on a perch. ![]() Star TalkĪdmit that the morning Star made her appearance I was momentarily confused. They put their differences aside to band together to harass the hawk and all was well. That changed when they spotted a hawk in a nearby tree. However, with one especially hostile encounter in the aviary, I let them out to fly and they even argued while flying. Typically, when they left the aviary giving each other the hairy eyeball, they almost immediately paired up and flew together in synchronicity, which helped them re-establish a compatible pair bond. ![]()
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