Hail, hail the gang’s all here
Gang-gan Cockatoos—pic from the Canberra Ornithologists Group’s website
Cheryl and John, our next door neighbours, stopped me in the driveway earlier today to ask if I’d seen the gang that had visited them that morning.
The gang being about 10 colourful Gang-gang Cockatoos, which are one of the Australian Capital Territory’s emblems. These distinctive birds also appear on logos for the Canberra Ornithologists Group and ACT Parks, Conservation and Lands.
According to the Ornithologists Group’s website, Gang-gangs are typically seen in the gardens of Canberra’s inner suburbs, especially those near bushland reserves. And they are most commonly around in the cooler months (it’s autumn now in Australia). We’re lucky to be close to the bush landscape of Mt Ainslie, so no wonder they hang around our neighbourhood.
We get them in our backyard sometimes (they like the cones on our bookleaf pine tree), but never so many at one time. Cheryl, John and Cheryl’s dad (he’s in the video too) say they’ve never see a group as large as this.
The video was taken on a phone and is a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea. One cockatoo remains steadfastly on Cheryl’s head and, at one stage, there are three perched on her right arm.
As an aside, Cheryl and John are having a garage sale tomorrow. Let me know if you want the address—they aren’t selling birds and I’m not buying anything!
P.S. Sadly, I think the video isn’t working for many people. So annoying. Maybe it’s because I have a free WordPress account that doesn’t support videos. Happy to email you the file.
Where to next? 
Couldn’t get the video, but lovely pic
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Oh darn, I hoped the video would come through everywhere.
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It’s probably just me not being set up right. Have a great weekend x
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Thanks so much. You have the same.
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Nope, it says ‘This video is unavailable’.
Shame about that as I’ve never seen a Gang Gang Cockatoo in the wild (of Canberra or anywhere else for that matter) 🙂
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Darn, darn, double darn! I could send you a link.
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Hi Peggy,
I couldn’t get the video either but the photo of the two of them is lovely. Even though I live at the bottom of the ridge I’ve never seen any. Are you sure it’s autumn? To me it still seems remarkably like summer although I might have a bad attitude! You’re not even going to see if Cheryl has any cookbooks that she no longer needs? They might have tempting Page 32 recipes!
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Frustrated that the video isn’t working. Maybe it’s because I have a free WordPress account.
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Sorry about the video. But one of our favorite memories from our first visit to Australia in 1986 was all the wonderful cockatoos and other colorful birds, exotic in the U.S., but wild in Australia.
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Thanks, I’m so annoyed the video doesn’t show. Must be because I have a free WordPress account. 😦
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I couldn’t get the video either, but the pictures are cute!
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I ‘ve done some tinkering and I think the video should work now.
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👍
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The video played fine for me, thanks
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No video. Lovely photo
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Try again, I think I fixed it.
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You did. Well done
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Wow, what a gorgeous experience, loved watching this and reading the story.
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So glad it worked for you.
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Gald too, enjoyed it
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Video worked fine here, that lady is a good sport, and those birds are a riot! In the beginning the birds seem to be making sounds like small chainsaws starting up? They’re a fun gang!
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So glad the video worked for you. I guess they’re a chain gang!
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I was lucky, and was able to watch the whole video. Great to see such tame parrots in your driveway. My wife would be terrified of course, but I would stand out there all day feeding them!
Best wishes, Pete.
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I don’t think they’re tame, just hungry and greedy. One of my daughters would be terrified too.
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I love the birds in Oz, I cant wait to get back over there, never seen these before
Are these wild or semi tame ?
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I think these ones are wild. Haven’t been around before!
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I did get the video … so it works in France. That gang is adorable!!
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And not nearly as noisy as the sulphur-crested cockatoos.
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Wow…..so amazing!!
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I was sorry I missed seeing it in person.
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They are gorgeous. Enjoyed the video 🙂
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Wish I could have seen it myself.
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Beautiful 🌾
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Glad you liked it.
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Could I not ?😉😀
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The video works fine for me, so there’s that, but I’m also intrigued by the interesting bit of cinematography toward the end. Exactly what were we going for there? (You know I had to bring this up.) 😉
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Someone had to bring it up. That’s the problem with amateur camera operators! 🙂
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The video worked here in the Southern Highlands. The air is thinner here. We too get many parrots, especially the white ones. They can strip a tree bare in minutes and are forever frolicking about screeching everyone awake.
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The sulphur crested ones are noisy devils. They do a lot of damage to our quince tree.
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Wow. They just come sit on your hand and your head and hang out? Amazing. They must know they’re protected and in good company. Here’s a funny for suburban Texas. We have woodpeckers. Like little jackhammers on the early morning dog walk. On the way to buy some lumber the other day I stopped at a stop sign over a creek. To my right I see a flassh of red and a woodpecker is walking around the base of huge old pinoak, looking up and down, like “Okay, I can do this.” Birds. Almost all we have left of dinosaurs. Cool. I can’t believe they just come and hang like that…
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I love your comment ‘Okay, I can do this’. I can really visualise the setting. We are so lucky to have these dinosaurs.
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Amusing, Peggy. Quite a gang! And friendly. 🙂 –Curt
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Cheryl was quite startled. but it was great that cameras on two phones were in action. Sorry I missed seeing it in person.
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I was carrying the bird feeder that I had filled back to it’s perch when a flock of Juncos decided that I was taking too long. They we all over me. I put the feeder down and went in to get my camera. They were still there. So I picked up the feeder and tried to photograph the birds with the other hand. I had birds on my head, birds on the camera, on the cage, inside the cage, and on my arms. True chaos. No good photos but is was fun! –Curt
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I can imagine the kind of chaos you describe because I’ve seen it with other kinds of birds. Like you, I have no good photos. Maybe someday.
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Well done for fixing the video – i wouldn’t have known where to start Peggy. Amazing experience when birds flock to you like this. It’s like something out of a fairy story.
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I’ve seen rosellas and galahs do this, but never gang-gangs.
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Wow what à beautiful picture
Thank you do much dear
Kisses
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You are most welcome.
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Thanks for a lovely video Peggy! Cheryl is obviously enjoying her time with the gang!
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She was just thrilled to have the experience.
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These are lovely and what a beautiful picture!
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Thanks so much.
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Well this made me homesick 😦 It was not so much the gang-gangs as the sound of the magpies warbling in the background. It gets me every time.
Funnily enough I’ve never seen a gang-gang in Canberra! King parrots, rosellas, eastern rosellas, cockatoos, galahs, and more, but never a gang-gang – perhaps because I’m always back in the summer months.
Alison
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I’m so glad you mentioned the magpies and their warbling. Cheryl says they were complaining because the gang-gangs were getting all the attention.
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It worked for me, 🤗. The birds are fun!
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Good to know it worked.
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Loved the video!! How wonderful. Lucky you!!
Peta
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Wish I could have seen it in person.
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The video worked for me! How on earth your friend handled having a bird making itself comfortable on her HEAD, I’ll never know. Seeing the birds come and go on my hand and arm is one thing, but I’d be constantly freaking that the bird up top is going to poo on my head. 😛
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I’ve been pooped on by a bird flying over. Gosh I felt silly, but it washed out.
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I walked into a tree branch where a bird had pooped, but I was a kid, so of course there’s a mother screeching about not getting bird poop on the carseat, and I hated getting my hair washed, aaaaaaaaaaand yeah. 🙂
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No wonder the thought freaks you out.
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Amazing. We’ve rarely seen gang gangs and never like that.
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I sure hadn’t seen it before.
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I so love the birds in Australia (I’m in Canada but travel there at least once a year). That video is just splendid!
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Thanks so much. I love the Australian birds too.
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Toll Einfach toll !!!(*L*)
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Thanks so much. I was so glad the neighbours shared the video.
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My pleasure, I will do it !!!! with pleasure
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Got the video. I was happy to see she didn’t scream when one landed on her hair.
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Cheryl’s a no-nonsense kind of gal.
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Lovely!
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Thanks.
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How wonderful to have these gorgeous birds in your backyard. Loved the video.
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We are so lucky with the birds in Australia.
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We sure are. I can hear them even now typing this, with the door open, all the cockatoos and laurikeets.
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A strange rush of nostalgia as I read this. Weird to be sitting in New Jersey and reading such familiar names as Mt Ainslie and Gang-gangs. I lived for years in the inner Northern suburbs. What a very long time ago it all seem’s now.
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Interesting how we’ve traded places.
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Indeed.
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One of the joys of walking around Hughes is seeing the Gang Gangs and King Parrots almost every day — the sulphur crested gangsters, Eastern Rosellas, Crimson Rosellas and in the breeding season the Satin Bower Birds.
We are very lucky in Canberra and Australia. But the ‘creakies’ are a favourite!
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We are so very lucky.
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