Thread: A technical question about cockatoos.

I recall talking to a fruit orchardist once about the bs and him telling me they were impossible to deter.
He even shot some and hung them in the trees , and the live ones then came and played on/with the corpses.

Around where I live I am in tall forest , and I feed the King parrots , Cuckoo doves, white headed pigeons, and the thugs (rainbow lorikeets).

The cockys get interested sometimes and I had a super soaker to blast them. They seem to finally get the message and the lorikeets will drive them away by biting their feet. But let down your guard and you will be having breakfast on the deck, and suddenly feel a presence and look up to find one standing a foot from you on the table , saying aren't I cute?
NO YOU ARE NOT BLOODY CUTE.
So maybe the answer is to encourage rainbow lorikeets with some sunflower seeds on the pipes , and they will chase the cockys away.
Regards Philip A

You could try to get in touch with Ian Temby at Dept. of Sustainablility and Environment, He was based at their Box Hill Office (Vic) last time I spoke to him. Ian is a bit of a guru on these matters.

Box Hill Office*-*Department of Sustainability and Environment*(Victoria Online)

Cockatoo - Department of Primary Industries

cheers
Paul

My Grandfather used to have a pair of V planks about 3m long with grain in the groove, and a shot gun mounted at one end.
A length of string to the house activated the trigger.
Not too sure that it would be allowed these days though.

Our local council puts 150mm long wire spikes on top of street lamps to deter seagulls landing on them.

cheers

I'll just add caution to applying anything greasy / oily to the pipe. If it's poly then you may find it'll leech into the pipe and into the water, may not do you any harm but it'll cause the pipe to fail over time.

I'm a clean water pipelines engineer by 'trade' and any kind of ground contamination of a chemical / petroleum nature we have to lay barrier pipe. It's surprising just how fast anything petroleum based can eat through a plastic pipe.

Unfortunately the only economical way to rid yourself of the problem is to get a permit and shoot them. As many have stated, all of the tricks eventually do not work - the cockey's will either get used to them or ignore them.

Again unfortunately, once you start controlling them, you have to keep controlling them - ie you have to do it each year from now on. You cannot shoot some and hope the others get the message. And you must do it each year they come through. This practice is used throughout Australia in many areas.

When I went to Uni back in 1999 and studied Parks at CSU, this was the message from the head lecturer in the science faculty. Unless some new research has shown otherwise, unfortunately it may be the only solution. I am not advocating animal cruelty and I have worked in the environmental field for over 10 years (for you nay sayers!).

Sometimes Agriculture and nature clash and sometimes agriculture wins.

I think the idea of 2 wires close together attached to an electric fence is a good one well worth a try on a section of the polly and if it works then do the whole lot

you could even tape / cable tie the wire to the poly so that when they grab the poly as they land wammo - cheap and I think it would be effective

Sulphurs are very intelligent. Supposed to be smarter than dogs. They can mostly and quickly work out how to circumvent repellent devices. Witness the one sitting on the scaring gun. They can do amazing damage with those hooked beaks. The beaks can also do the most delicate work. I have seen them sit on a pea trellis and hold a pod of peas in one foot whilst opening the pod, and then peeling an individual pea to expose and eat the two halves. DO NOT FEED THEM!!!!!! They will be waiting for you and chew **** out of anything on your porch whilst waiting for room service. They do not like wedge tail eagles. A possible solution is to stake out some road kill, wallabiroos, hogs, etc. for the eagles and the sulphurs usually leave when the eagles arrive to deal with the carcasses.

I wonder if something like this would work if sprayed along the pipeline?
Www.predatorpee.com

Not sure what the natural predator of the cockatoo is or how you collect it's pee!