Playing with birds in Australia

[jsidlosky]

Hey everyone,

Just after getting married on April 27th, 2005, my new wife and I went on our honeymoon to Sydney and Cairns Australia.

On our 14 day trip we took 6,127 photos with a Canon Rebel XT (350D) DSLR.

We took a large amount of photos of the wild cockatoos in the open field parks and the semi-wild cockatoos in some of the large aviaries.

Here is a link to a small set of those photos. I have full resolution images if anyone wants one or a couple! (3456x2304).

http://www.sidlosky.com/galleries/australia_birds

If you go to the main page (http://sidlosky.com) you will see links to pictures and videos of our own birds Avry, Spot and Bianca.

Some info about the australia birds:

The pictures of the greater sulfurs were takin in the botanical gardens in Sydney.. There is a flock of about 30 of them that live there. These are the wild ones that have no problem landing on your arms or head! :)

We didn't have any treats for them the first visit, so we just had an unopened bottle of water, and they loved it! They ran up one at a time to take a drink then flew off. They were really thirsty.

The second time we visited them we bought a $2 bag of sunflower seeds (yes, an unhealthy treat but they probably don't get them too often)... They went nuts for them as you can see thats when they started climbing all over us :)

They arn't afraid of people at all... at one point I had 30 of them around me, we decided I would put my arms out and yell to get them to fly off so we could get some cool pictures of them all flying at once... Well, I put my arms out, yelled and leaned way into a group of them only about 2 feet away.... what did they do? they just looked back at my with their heads cocked to one side like I was crazy. They wern't gunna budge! It was halarious, they are so tough and brave.

We saw lots of black cockatoos, both red and yellow tailed as well as a few white tailed. The interesting thing about all the black cockatoos is that they can't mimic speech. They are the only species that can't. They sure do make some funny sounds though and boy oh boy are they friendly.

In one aviary we visited, the second we walked in the huge 3 story aviary two of them flew to us, one landed on my shoulder and one on my wifes... we each had our own black cockatoo for a couple hours while we explored the aviary.

At the pet shops, black cockatoos are about $2,000 australian or $1,500 USD for a hand-raised one. Compare that to the USA where they are $20,000 to $50,000 if you can even find one. (Of course I don't support importing or exporting birds).

Anyways, have fun with the pictures. I got larger versions (big enough to make nice prints or desktop wallpaper) if anyone wants some.

Thanks,

Jeff Sidlosky

jsidlosky@gmail.com

http://www.sidlosky.com

[Tiki]

Welcome to Birdboard, Jeff! Those are great pics, thanks for sharing!

[Monica]

Lovely photos!!! I have only seen one black cockatoo, and that was a palm too! He was in a nursery/bird store, but he was up for adoption however (which was in Hawaii!). I haven't seen galahs yet though they are great looking birds! You guys over there can get handraised toos for $50-180 Australian, where-as those same birds are $1,300+ USD normally! Some may be cheaper like around $800 but then again you can't easily get macaws for $1,200!!!

You also have great looking birds!

[Franciscus]

Thanks for sharing Jeff. Those are great photos. Australia looks like a real paradise for parrot people, those 'toos are so interactive!

[kp_in_scott]

Awesome! Just Awesome! Of all the places in the world, I want to visit Australia the most. These photos just make me want to go even more. Thanks for sharing!

[LivingFiction]

Some great shots there. Looks like you used a lens baby for some of them.

[bgmacaw]

Really enjoyed the photos, that looked like an awesome trip.

[LivingFiction]

The vids on your site are fun as well.

[TinaBanana]

wow those are some great pictures.
im sure you guys had a blast.
i though the coolest pictures were of that strange bird that looks like a cross between an parrot and an owl hehehehe

[maverick]

Glad you enjoyed your trip. I have been and seen the toos at th gardens in Sydney. They are very cool.

Yes the toos may be cheap here but as Monica said the macaws sure aren't! 7000-10000 AUD for a B&G and 10000 + for a GW