Star, at 13 weeks of age, is still being fed regurgitated food by her parents, so whoever is on Star-watch will feed her. If anyone has any other ideas or information regarding this behavior, please leave a comment.
I could not find detailed descriptions of wild Bare-eyed Cockatoo nesting behavior, so this is the best explanation I can come up with at this time. This is all just conjecture on my part and may well make no sense at all. When one mate leaves the fledgling’s side, the other swoops in to take over, regardless of whether enough time has elapsed. In the aviary, food is conveniently only a few wing-beats away. When the far-ranging mate returns, the length of time has been such that the at-home mate is ready to leave the nest box, thus letting the returned cockatoo take over brooding duties. In the wild, while one bird broods the egg or chick, the other would typically be out for some length of time finding food. I’m thinking that this may be a natural behavior, distorted by captivity. What I haven’t observed before is anything like this constant changing of who’s “in charge” of Star. I was aware of that conduct, having bred cockatoos myself. He did mention, though, that in captive breeding situations cockatoos can be quite difficult, as some males show intense aggression towards their mates before going to nest.
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