Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo – behaviour

Hi

Stuart Warren and I witnessed interesting behaviour from a group of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos at the weekend. We had stopped to check out a dead YTBC beside the road – the first YTBC roadkill either of us had seen – and while we examined it, 4 other birds circled back from a distance of about 200 meters calling constantly to come to rest in the tree above us. They spent several minutes calling and displaying – raising their wings and crests and generally appearing quite distressed (and I am trying not to place any human emotion on their behaviour) before taking off and flying back the way they had come. The dead bird was esentially undamaged, but stiff and slightly flat. At a guess I would estimate it had been killed late the previous day – it was about 8.00am when we found it. We could only assume the other birds in its party had come back to either find it or mourn it in some way – it was a spectacular, but sad, experience.

Regards