![]() On the previous spread, one of Dima’s other parrot wards, an Australian sulphur-crested cockatoo, poses for the camera.ĭima is the aviary manager for a private collection of parrots, pheasants and other birds near Whangārei. Both Dima and this macaw species come from Brazil. “Now I’m living in my paradise, working with birds.” Aviary manager Leno Dima cares for hundreds of parrots at a private collection near Whangārei, including these young blue-and-yellow macaws that he raised from egg to fledgling. Originally from Brazil, where he trained as a parrot biologist, Dima came to New Zealand to learn English. He gently scritches the feathers on the back of one of the macaws’ heads, and the parrot closes her eyes in bliss. They screech and flap and cling to the cage mesh and screech some more.ĭespite the cacophony and commotion, my host, Leno Dima, is unruffled. I’m standing in an aviary with seven blue-and-yellow macaws, just a few months old. She stretches her wings, fluttering them awkwardly. Her curved hook of a beak looks thick and strong enough to break my finger, so I refrain from stroking her plumage-bright blue and buttercup yellow with an emerald crown and a hint of zebra stripes around her eye. She’s huge, nearly a metre from top-of-head to tail-tip. The bird watches me with an inquisitive eye. This species is also referred to as Major Mitchell Cockatoos but their namesake was a surveyor during the 1800s whose expeditions included some heart-breaking interactions with the indigenous people whose country they were surveying – I am one of many who prefer to call them Pink Cockatoos.Written by Ellen Rykers Photographed by Richard Robinson The image above makes me smile as the bird looks like it’s laughing while taking a much needed bath. It could be a young bird as emerging pin feathers can be seen on its head but females’ eyes become red as the mature so it could be an older bird molting – either way it appears to have spent time in a nesting hollow. ![]() The dirtiness is possibly from being in a nesting hollow. Their crests appear predominantly white until raised when their magnificence truly shines, there just aren’t enough superlatives.Īs it perched on the edge of a small farm trough I had to wonder if it had turned up for a drink or a bath its feathers were filthy. The early morning light on this bird was stunning. These cockatoos are considerably smaller than the more common Sulphur-crested variety they measure about 39cm (compared with 48cm) and weigh about 375g (compared to over 800g).īirds don’t get much more spectacular that this. The Mallee pine fruit, in both of the above images, is being held in the bird’s right foot which means I need to do more research on the ‘left-handed parrots’ story as shared in a previous post about Gang-gang Cockatoos. ![]() They are also a species which is targeted by collectors for the illegal captive bird trade, which is a sickening thought.Īnd here’s the other profile. Their habitat has been impacted by land clearing which has reduced the number of suitable nesting hollows and depleted their food sources. Pink Cockatoos are listed as Vulnerable in Victoria (where I saw these lovelies), NSW and Queensland, Rare in South Australia, and Secure in WA and the NT. Looking beneath Mallee pines for debris is a good way to see if the fruits are being eaten, failing that having a beady-eyed, super observant and lovely friend with you is a brilliant alternative. Seeing Pink Cockatoos up close and dirty was another highlight of my recent Mallee trip.
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