Gang-gang Cockatoos (Callocephalon fimbriatum) eating sawfly larvae Callum Brae NR ACT Australia
Canon EOS 7D Lens 400mm L USM 5.6 ISO400 F7.1 1/320 mottled light with fill flash 6 April 2012 10.04am Cloned some OOF leave and sticks from edges of image.
Gang Gang Cockatoos were high on my list to get digital images so I was delighted to spot this pair browsing on Saw Fly larvae , possibly Large Green Sawfly (Perga affinis) but there are number of species.
Earlier I mentioned that Callum Brae NR is recovering from die back and that the trees are recovering. Saw Fly infestation are a major defoliation pest of eucalyptus trees so Gang Gang do help here, but they are mainly seed eaters.Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) of the Government of South Australia has life history of various Saw Fly species at: http://outernode.pir.sa.gov.au/fores...ating_sawflies
Saw Fly larvae form gregarious clumps of up to 20 individuals which when disturbed rear both ends towards an attacker exuding liquid a common name is Spitfires. In this image only about 10 larvae were left to eat. Richard Allen commenting on Gang Gang's eating larvae --"The male was eating Saw Fly larvae. He snipped off the branchlet containing ball of larvae holding it in foot while carefully munched on them one at a time. He appeared to squeeze out the yummy stuff and discard skins. " This left an image in my mind of a larrikin red-headed parrot calmly eating a paddle pop of saw fly larvae. In my case they were easy to stalk as they become engrossed at the task at hand, I was fortunate to get a number of images and then as soon as the last larvae was gone so were the pair of Gang Gangs !! In this image you will see a number of larvae just above the female bird's (lower bird) back and another 4 o5 5 to the right. You can see the liquid being exuded from the far right larva.
Birds in Backyards has a fact sheet on the species which are only found in SE Australia in NSW and Victoria only go to : http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/spec...lon-fimbriatum
and take a moment to play Fred Van Gessels sound clip of a calling Gang Gang. Oh! They are monogamous.
Thanks for viewing
Best regards
Rod Warnock







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