Author Topic: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!  (Read 31944 times)

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Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #50 on: July 15, 2020, 11:35:46 am »
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Offline cdev

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #51 on: July 15, 2020, 07:24:36 pm »
I used to have a friend who used to have me take care of her apartment, to feed and check up on Sophie, her salmon crested cockatiel when she was out of town. She was a really smart and special bird. Almost human. She always would be curious about what I was doing and she was very playful.  I suppose I can imagine sort of what its like to have intelligent birds around (because we have crows, corvids) but parrots are so gregarious and smart.

What I would do is try to mimic animals that are scary for them. Fake snakes might help. Also smells from other predatory animals. Some animals dont like human smell so a bag of hair clippings and sprinkling the hair clippings around keeps them away. Another thing that might help is a PIR set to be sensitive enough to trigger on parrots (their body temperature is as high or even higher than ours is) connected to trigger a xenon flash tube.

Those bastards! Anyone have any ideas on how to stop Cockatoos eating my brand new merbau deck, that doesn't involve a projectile?

Is there something I can spray that they absolutely hate? It seems they don't appreciate the taste of the stain/lacquer but it takes them a few bites to realise it. These birds are absolutely huge! As big as cats, I'll snap a photo if I can catch them next time.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 02:06:26 pm by cdev »
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Offline Gregg

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #52 on: July 15, 2020, 07:38:38 pm »
Green laser pointer with a pattern lens works well on ducks and geese after sunset when they tend to settle on my boat dock.  I don't know if it would work in daylight but would be inexpensive to find out. 
 

Offline themadhippy

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #53 on: July 15, 2020, 07:43:03 pm »
Knew a girl who hated corvids,but liked a  Cockatoo.
 

Online vk6zgo

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #54 on: July 16, 2020, 02:38:36 am »
Back in the day, white cockatoos would appear in thousands in the  tropical North of Western Australia, & sit on the Boab trees,(the trees are the same species as the African Baobab,) making them look like they were in flower.

That was harmless, but their favourite "party trick" was to cluster in huge groups on the pole route  (phone
landline) South of Wyndham WA.

They would swing back forth, until they managed to entangle the wires.
This would cause feedback on the carrier telephone system.

The incoming & outgoing channels were on separate frequencies, but get enough coupling & it would overwhelm the filtering, so the whole system would go into oscillation.

This always happened just when atmospheric conditions were at their worst for the backup HF Radio system.

Back in the present, my major problem is Ibises stomping around on my roof.
I'm too old to climb up on the roof & yell at them, throw stuff, or shoot at them (even if that was legal, I'd probably miss the Ibis & pot a TV antenna installer in the next street).
 

Offline amyk

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #55 on: July 16, 2020, 02:44:09 am »
Talk about a unique problem, Have any pictures of the damage? I'm curious what they can actually do lol.

There have been in the news before.  They can be incredibly destructive.  I can recall someone losing some timber siding off their home a few years back.  Looked like half a dozen people went crazy slashing the side of the house with chainsaws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sulphur-crested_Cockatoos_damaging_a_shopping_centre_facade_4.jpg
 

Offline cdev

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #56 on: July 16, 2020, 02:03:57 pm »
What is in that stuff - why do they eat it?

Talk about a unique problem, Have any pictures of the damage? I'm curious what they can actually do lol.

There have been in the news before.  They can be incredibly destructive.  I can recall someone losing some timber siding off their home a few years back.  Looked like half a dozen people went crazy slashing the side of the house with chainsaws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sulphur-crested_Cockatoos_damaging_a_shopping_centre_facade_4.jpg
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #57 on: July 16, 2020, 06:09:34 pm »
What is in that stuff - why do they eat it?

Talk about a unique problem, Have any pictures of the damage? I'm curious what they can actually do lol.

There have been in the news before.  They can be incredibly destructive.  I can recall someone losing some timber siding off their home a few years back.  Looked like half a dozen people went crazy slashing the side of the house with chainsaws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sulphur-crested_Cockatoos_damaging_a_shopping_centre_facade_4.jpg

Parrots like to chew on stuff (like dogs), not sure why but when you have them as pets you have to give them chew toys (usually wood is what I've seen, one Youtuber even had a whole untreated wood plank under the desk for the bird and you could hear CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUCNCH) or they'll start nomming on stuff.
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Offline dbctronic

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #58 on: July 17, 2020, 01:06:02 am »
I was a self employed handyman for years. One day, I went to a customer's house to set up a work list. Among the items was a chair arm clawed up by their gray cockatoo. The customer left me to pick up a phone call, leaving me to inspect the chair with the cockatoo watching nearby, raising and lowering its crest (sign of nervousness).

"Whatcha lookin' at?" it said.
Without looking up, I calmly said "I'm looking at what you did".
"Uh oh," it said, and turned its back on me. The owner told me that it was worried I would scold it, which it hated.

You will find it difficult indeed to fool these birds for long, with any ruse. Animal behaviorists rate them about as intelligent as five year old children. Make the deck undesirable to them (creosote?? Yeesh!!!) or offer a dire threat of some kind (fireworks, flying lead, pet hawk, Mr. Creosote).

 
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Offline jogri

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #59 on: July 17, 2020, 08:49:11 am »
I've had some success using bile soap against magpies that just wouldn't stop eating window seals
 

Offline cdev

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #60 on: July 20, 2020, 10:39:48 pm »
Somebody on Youtube shows off a vending machine for crows where if they put (real) money in the slot they get a bunch of peanuts.  And then he shows them using it. They figured it out pretty quickly.

This  actually seems kind of scary to me.
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline jh15

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #61 on: July 21, 2020, 03:33:07 am »
hmnn, would be interesting to see if they could put quarters in my pinballs, and instead of the knocker for a free game, some food.

Oh never mind. "No prizes, no wagering" is on my machines.
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Offline dbctronic

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #62 on: July 21, 2020, 06:29:03 pm »
Crows are also super smart. In a recent experiment, researchers got wild crows to come to them to trade seeds from the area for tasty bread crumbs. On an appointed day, one researcher took the seed from the crow, then ate the bread crumb as well. The crow cussed her out and left. Within a few days, none of the crows would trade with her. Somehow the crows, at a distance from the trading area, were able to talk about the event and identify her specifically.
Out here in the countryside, where I live, crows understand guns very well. Because they're a threat, not a ruse.
 
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Offline cdev

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Re: Cockatoos are eating my new decking!
« Reply #63 on: July 21, 2020, 07:05:34 pm »
This story is so cool. This girl has been feeding crows and they give her "art objects" in return.

The objects they see as special do to me really do seem kind of special.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026

Imagine a warrld where different species looked out for one another.



"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 
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