​Bruce, Scabby and Bob

Best buddies (and possibly more) Scabby and Bob. Photos: Liane Arno

By Matt Stone
 
WE LOVE to sit on the front deck as evening falls and watch and listen to visiting birds – the beautiful warble of the magpies and even the raucous sound of squabbling lorikeets. Most are referred to by Liane as ‘Darling’ or ‘Gorgeousness’ as she offers them small amounts of food – their incentive to stay away from our plums, apples, nashi pears and apricots.
 
Last year we were so excited to be visited by a sulphur crested cockatoo. What a magnificent creature with his big, beautiful distinctive crest. He created a shadow as he arrived and all the other birds left in a hurry to the power lines above until they realised he wasn’t a threat and headed back.

We called him Bruce (as you do) and would eagerly wait each evening to see if he returned. I must admit we felt a bit sorry for him as he was alone. 

Bruce, the sulphur-crested cockatoo: beautiful but alone

After a couple of visits he was joined by a corella. To be honest I can’t stand the corellas as they are noisy and bossy and screech and bully all and sundry. I have started to call them the white maggots and will scare them away any time more than a couple arrive.

​But here was a very sad looking, ratty and scruffy companion to our magnificent cockatoo. We called him Scabby. He had a very long beak. We didn’t know whether it was deformed or natural as he could have been a long-billed corella, but it didn’t seem to affect his ability to eat. They formed such a great friendship and where Bruce would peck at any other intruders to his feeding platform he would cheerfully have Scabby munching away beside him.

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Scabby, Bruce's scruffy companion

They didn’t visit very often and it was about three months later that we saw Scabby on the roadside, looking even the worse for wear, having lost much of his plumage. We decided he was not long for this planet.
 
After winter Bruce returned without Scabby. Alone again.
 
You can imagine how excited Liane was when one evening Bruce came with another friend. We weren’t sure if it was an immature cockatoo as it seemed a little smaller than Bruce and its crest was not as large. Bruce would watch his friend (whom we have named Bob) in an almost paternalistic way to make sure that he got a feed among the hungry lorikeets, so we assumed Bob was an offspring.
 
But who was the other parent? We had never seen another sulphur-crested cockatoo around. Surely not Scabby’s last big effort?​

Bob, possibly a cockarella

Well, it turns out corellas and sulphur-crested cockatoos do crossbreed in the wild (loosely called cockarellas). Cockatoos and corellas are all in the same genus (Cacatua), so hybrids are named by parent species rather than given a new hybrid species name.
 
While they are distinct species, they share habitats, particularly in urban areas, sometimes resulting in cross-breeding and creation of hybrids. These hybrids often display mixed features, such as a smaller, less intense yellow (sulphur) crest or altered facial markings.
 
Corellas are also known to breed with galahs, and in some areas, mixed flocks of cockatoos and corellas show many hybrids in their flocks. The crossbreeding is natural and well documented by observers across eastern and southern Australia.
 
So, we still enjoy Bruce and Bob’s arrivals. We are pretty sure Bob is not a pure-bred sulphur-crested cockatoo – but love him all the same. Here’s to cultural diversity! ​