Pesky, Noisy Birds

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Our property is quite isolated with Australian bush forming two or our boundaries and our nearest neighbours down the hill and nearly out of sight. But the last two days it has been very noisy here because of the pesky black cockatoos. The black cockatoo is endemic to Western Australia. Some of the subspecies are believed to be so close to extinction that they probably cannot be saved. The Carnaby's and Baudin's black cockatoos have white tail panels and white patches on the cheeks. The Forest Red-Tail has red panels in the tail. When the latter spread their tails to land in a tree they always look as though they have their brake-lights on. Baudin's cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) has a longer upper beak than does the Carnaby. The fine point on the tip of the beak allows the bird to prise open gumnuts from the redgum or marri. The genus name means 'hidden beak' as the bird can fluff up the feathers to conceal the beak from view. We see all of these in the bush around our property but it is the Baudin's that are causing the noise at the moment. Even when feeding they chatter away quietly to themselves, or maybe to each other. They often leave a messy pile of half-eaten gumnuts, twigs and leaves under the trees in which they have been feeding. Despite calling them 'pesky' earlier, we are quite fond of them really. Much of this post appeared in Bubblews so I'm hoping the text isn't hiding away somewhere waiting to expose me as a plagiarist.