I stopped over at a friend's house yesterday morning to look at some of the period furniture in his collection and to see his new cockatoo buddy. My friend lost a larger cockatoo last year that he had been pals with for over thirty years and he recently was lucky enough to find this one. Not sure of the gender yet and the bird isn't saying.
I have never made friends with too many birds but this guy is just a peach. Loves to be scratched and cuddled, the happiest and most affectionate bird I have ever encountered. Incredibly smart, Alba likes to play with toys and crack brazil nuts. He or she has beautiful lemon chiffon feathers underneath the white outer plumage.
Alba is a White or Umbrella Cockatoo (Cacatua Alba). Cockatoos like Alba originate in the islands of Halmahera, Bacan, Ternate, Tidore, Kasiruta and Mandiole in North Maluku, Indonesia. They can live past the age of 80 and have a talent for imitating human speech. They get the name Umbrella for their splendid crest display, which can often occur when they are startled. The species was first described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller. This bird species was popular in ancient China and The Fourth Crusade was sealed between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the Sultan of Babylon in 1229 with a gift of a White Cockatoo.
Damn cute. The parrot can't stand him.
