Question for the Aussies

[PortaPerch]

We see so many cautions and warnings about fresh water daily for our birds, yet they have somehow survived in the wild for millions of years. Among the few videos of wild African Greys on utube, you see they drink from the puddles made where elephants have been walking.

What kind of water supplies do wild cockatoos frequent? Do they always seek fresh water, or are some of the ponds stagnant? Are there ever mass die-offs, or anything like that? Do they have any kind of chronic illnesses?

Just curious, thanks.

 

[Oedipussrex]

we have local sulfur crested flocks and little corella flocks that congregate every evening in numbers from 50 to a couple of hundred (in different areas for each flock) at a park where there is tall trees, lots of grass and a lake. on hot days they sometimes take a bath in the lake a few at a time, (it is stagnant and full of ducks most of the year unless it floods) but mostly they just browse in the grass or fly (very loudly) in groups in circles around the trees. I have never seen them specifically drinkingout of the lake or a puddle though.
And i do imagine their life expectancies are much lower in the wild simply because of disease, hygiene and exposure.

that recent documentary... umm on the wings of something orather... i dont know i cant remember what it was called, (and odds are you got it almost a year before us anyway, so possibly not that recent lol) but there was great photography of a maaaasssssive budgie flock, of a couple thousand all flying over each other and taking turns to drink out of a lake.

 

[Oedipussrex]

*Earthflight thats what it was

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUpGRQK7o78]Budgerigars - Earthflight - YouTube[/ame]
a documentary worth watching, good cameos of macaws too.