As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

Hello cocky! Rare yellow-feathered mutation of red-tailed black cockatoo draws twitchers' attention


Updated 20 Feb 2019, 3:02am
Western Australia's bird watching community is abuzz with joy following a sighting of a rare yellow-feathered forest red-tailed black cockatoo spotted frolicking in a tree outside a regional police station.
The bird's plumage is thought to be the result of a genetic mutation opposite of albinism called leucism, which has left the bird with brilliant yellow feathers in place of should have been red or black ones.
Though not confirmed to be the same bird, a similarly marked cockatoo has been sighted and photographed just south of Perth in Bedfordale, more than 150 kilometres north of the most recent sighting in a lemon-scented gum tree outside Bunbury Police Station.
The ABC was alerted to the bird's presence by Bunbury-based environmental biologist and avid bird-watcher, Johnny Prefumo, who first sighted it in early February.
"I was driving when I first saw it and at first I thought it may have been the light, but when I twigged as to what it was I almost had a car accident," Mr Prefumo said.
"It was half by chance that I was walking past the police station and heard a big flock of cockatoos, looked up and there she was.


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