The Astonishing Drumming Bird, introduced to me by Graeme Bertrand.

 The Astonishing Drumming Bird

                        Introduced to me by my friend Graeme Bertrand.

Well, I thought I knew almost everything about birds, but recently I've found at that there are just so many gaps in my knowledge.

The other day Graeme brought me a piece of paper with facts about a bird which drums to attract its mate to the nest he has built for her...  to see if she might be interested enough to stay with him to raise a family!

You may already have seen clips about this wonderful species of cockatoo, the "Palm Cockatoo", but for me this was news. I'm always keen to know more about birds which use special "routines" to attract their mates, especially Bower Birds, but I did not know about this species.

Not only does the bird "learn" to drum from his elders, but he must also learn to craft his own "drumstick". This learning is not a speedy process, it takes time... just like those young crows who learn from their seniors how to extract grubs from logs using a specially selected stick which the aggravated grub will hook onto.

Anyhow, the next clip tells you quite a lot more about the mating habits of this endangered species of cockatoo. It seems that the extremely fussy females take a lot of convincing to settle down with any particular male... and that means they produce quite a small number of offspring over a long period of time.

Hoping this will be news to some of you, and if not news, it surely will not be wasted on you a second time round!

pt