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Australia has three out of the six species of Corella found in the world. The Little, the Long-billed and the Western Corella are endemic to Australia and are subspecies of the White Cockatoo (genus Cacactua). These birds are one of the most playful of birds, particularly the Little Corella, which are also found in some of the largest flocks of any bird in Australia. Bass and Flinders, when exploring Bass Strait reported seeing a flock of Little Corella passing overhead which took several hours to pass over. These birds graze, play and breed together within the flock, only separating for a time to find a tree hole to have their young, and then return to the flock. The Little Corella love to play and show off, which has been found to be a form of stress relief for them and also helps them find their mate for life.

Recent research into bird neurology has found that birds live a very stressful life, being constantly on guard against possible predation, and playing is a form of stress relief and a survival technique, especially among the young. Recent research has revealed that play, being enjoyable, as it is for us humans, causes the brain to release the feel good endorphins (hormones) which assist in relieving stress. This feel good affect is also generated when birds sing heartily just for the fun and their enjoyment of it. I love watching Corella play and how affectionate and loving they are to one another. They raise their white crests when aroused either sexually or in fear and alarm, as seen below.

The Little Corella are the most common of the Corella found throughout Australia and are found around Sydney, especially feeding from the cones of the Norfolk Pine along the coast as well as the native Casuarina Trees. They are a placid bird often found feeding and nesting alongside the Sulphur-crested and Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, which are arch enemies, only tolerating each other at the best of times when food is plentiful and no young are present. The larger Yellow-tails will often chase the Sulphurs away. Click photo to enlarge it.

The Little Corella is a little smaller and has the shorter beak and is only pink around the lores and not on neck. This the sound the flock make, which can be deafening at times when they are alarmed.

The Long-billed Corella is slightly larger and has a much longer beak and pink/red under its chin on the neck. These birds were originally found only in a small area of Victoria and SA, but are now widely distributed along the east coast of NSW and Tasmania. My wife and I sighted these birds below grazing on pine seeds at Kiama, NSW near the Visitor Centre that sells my book “What Birds Teach Us” and is situated beside the famous Kiama Blowhole.

This the sound they make together.

and this is the Kiama Blowhole in operation…

Finally, the Western Corella, is the least found subspecies and occurs mainly in and around Perth, Western Australia. It looks very similar to the Long Billed but has an often erect crest, rounder wings and longer tail and has less pink coloration on the chest. than the Long-billed. However, it has been reported that the bird hardly found in Perth itself, but more wide spread around south western WA.

Enjoy your week and stay safe. Please check out my birding help pages when you get a chance.

As we approach the time we remember the amazing act of love by Jesus Christ, dieing in our place as the perfect unblemished Lamb of God, the only person who had never sinned and committed selfish acts, but always had his heart and mind focused on doing God his Father’s loving will, by loving us. He was focused on our pain and suffering, and did all in his power as a man, through God’s strength to heal and restore us, culminating in his death as a substitute for all who put their faith in him, and claim his death as their own, and his resurrection as theirs also.

It was interesting when I was in Israel to find that the so called ‘stable’ where Jesus was born, as an actual Lambing Cave, in the side of the mountain. Bethlehem is situated on the side of a mountain near Jerusalem. He the Lamb of God was separated and found without blemish, to die as our Passover Lamb, as a free gift of God our Father’s exception mercy and grace to restore us to himself in full loving peaceful relationship. It is further interesting that the first born male lamb was wrapped tightly in swaddling clothes and places in the manger (animal feed box) to protect and keep it from danger and blemish. It was wrapped in special ceremonial bands, and as it grew was carefully observed and protected until the day of it being sacrificed, just as the Lord Jesus. Many times he evaded being stoned and arrested because it was not the right time for his death, he had to be the Passover Lamb when God said so, to take away the sin of the world.

It is interesting that when Adam the first man first sinned he experienced guilt and a sense of separation from God for the first time, and started to feel what it was like to be alone and stressed with having to live life his own way. Cain, after killing his brother was sent out to walk the desert restlessly, and so the spirit on unsaved mankind is walking through life with a deep sense of restlessness, anxiety, loneliness and lack of purpose, not knowing who they are and why they are here. This is because we have all been disconnected from the one who loved and formed us into being, and the same one who continues to love and welcome us back, through Jesus, his flesh and blood expression of his loving person.

 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave^[g] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. “ – John 3:16-19 (NLT)

What many people fear when reading this is that they are not good enough for God, but that is the lie of the Devil who keeps us from trusting and seeing God’s great love for us. Yes we are not good enough in ourselves because we all have sinned even the best of us, but God is offering a free gift of life through the body and blood of Jesus his own Son, so that everything we have ever done wrong past, present and future has been paid for in full for all eternity. ‘Once for all time.’ as the Bible puts it. We can try all we like to live the perfect sinless day, as I once did, but we ultimately fail, as we have a sinful nature and are prone to be selfish in our decisions and actions.

“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,” – Romans 8:3 (NIV)

“ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” – John 1:9-12

Give some time to consider the One who hung on the Cross for you and me.

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To introduce people to our amazing Australian Birds

To learn from them better ways of living a healthy happy life

Adv. Dip. of Counselling and Family Therapy

© W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023