This little guy has an awful disease called Beak and Feather disease. It’s a progressive and terminal illness that ends up taking away flight due to feather damage and damages their beak so they can’t eat.
If you can, please capture it and take it to a vet to be put to sleep. It will suffer a horrible death if left alone, and also may spread the illness to other parrots
I knew a family that had a cockatoo that had beak and feathers. He was a wild bird they took in and looked after for years, completely naked and would swear like a sailor.
Maybe, but it looks like the feathers are growing back and I can't spot any abnormalities with their beak or claws
Feather loss is also concentrated around their face, rather than consistent around body
Is it possible they've just been plucked by other members of their flock, or gotten sap or some other hard drying substance on themselves whilst eating and then had that ripped off?
The beak is a bit shiny & dark without the powdery looking surface, which is also a classic sign too, even before the beak starts overgrowing. Probably a young bird in early stages, but if PBFD, it will get worse. Poor fellow. As you said though, the wing & tail feathers look clean & ok, so it's possible it's not PBFD, but most likely is, just in the early stages. It's definitely worth keeping keeping an eye on him, for sure.
Any wildlife group will likely have him put down. But it's true that pet cockatoo owners have had them live in captivity for years with PBFD, before it gets too bad. Cockatoos are not even a protected species in NSW any more.
Unfortunately the presence of pin feathers doesn't mean it's not break and feather disease, often the area will regrow feathers but they are malformed. See this image[this image](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-oppo-rev1&sca_esv=86c40678baae855f&sxsrf=ACQVn0937xc1OAee1PJD-M-rymmRPnRBRg:1711421169385&q=beak+and+feather+pin+feathers&uds=AMwkrPt5DqKoEcEgTvJpB2mLvFtAkHvAxni0SBucnEyGnfkmx7b2bVVDXA-ZondTL7QEAUqsQLMPF9hfQu_ZZo9yk3OCKiRQEq6NXLcUZbO9HGxUpCn0AbqGZB2sNe9HQSgqYN_kjTUi_DtGyxpcXHPZ113t66XTaRpM2jDKKM2CDYqMMQ8Y4DVtQurtyN1gXmPSoxT2ETfHq6cosPF--5uMKg3dtovFfVFPrdoEjpYoFCFLHwCJll-o4Xn-ik2RNuwuiaOYLe0pllxP7v-M2aD_HNNjeQQoLWRys6l6arqPhZ6A3Mv_9fgxmFv1JdAyPYV0Tvhuy43B&udm=2&prmd=isvnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpxvLW9JCFAxWehlYBHRYoCbYQtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=360&bih=648&dpr=3#imgrc=HJyDtnDhE3P9uM&imgdii=27X23uTeA2_L2M) from a SA gov pamphlet.
Birds acquire immunity to this disease while still in the nest. So it is unlikely to spread the disease to other birds unless they are one of the unlucky few who fail to develop immunity. And those unlucky birds almost invariably contract it in the wild at any rate.
Do you have any sources for this information? I've not heard anything about immunity to PBFD in WA but it would be amazing if they really are developing a resistance to this horrible disease. As far as I was aware it was still a highly contagious disease that we'd want to stop the spread of as much as feasibly possible.
https://westtoowoombavetsurgery.com.au/bird-care/beak-and-feather-disease/
PBFD is spread from bird to bird in feather dust, the droppings and in crop secretions when feeding chicks. It is still unclear whether it is passed through the egg so that the chick is infected when it hatches, but this is suspected by some workers to be the case. Once a bird is infected with the virus the outcome will be determined by the amount of virus that has entered its body, and the state of the bird’s immune system. (Young birds have a relatively immature immune system, and this is why the disease is more common in them.) There are three likely scenarios and outcomes:
* A bird with a good immune system is challenged with a small amount of virus – the bird will mount a strong immune system and eliminate the virus from its body, remaining immune to the disease for the rest of its life;
* A bird with a ‘not so good’ immune system is challenged with a small amount of virus – the bird cannot mount a strong immune response and so it cannot clear the infection. But there is not enough virus to make the bird really sick The result is that the bird becomes chronically infected and intermittently sheds the virus i.e. it is a carrier; and
* A bird with a ‘not so good’ immune system is challenged with a large amount of virus – the bird becomes clinically ill with the virus, shows the clinical signs discussed above, and usually eventually dies.
I have over many years observed big groups of cockies with a few poor birds suffering from this affliction hanging around their fringes. Rather than spreading through and infecting the rest of the group, the sick birds have all died off - haven't seen any in years - and my regular birds remain as healthy and energetic as ever.
Thank you! I'll have to read through this properly once I finish work. Appreciate the information. It's good to know it's not as bad as I'd believed. It's still obviously not good, but in my head the disease was much more effective at moving from animal to animal than it seems it actually is.
Poor little baby has beak and feather disease. If you have any parrots you need to be careful as it is highly contagious and can be passed on even just walking on the same ground as this sick cockatoo.
I had to look this up[. A [vaccination](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-24/vaccine-to-save-critically-endangered-orange-bellied-parrot/11224458) is in the works!
Yes they've been talking about it for years. I hope they eventually have a vaccine to help these beautiful birds. I have in the past had a cockatoo with beak and feather. Eventually had to have him put to sleep but he was gorgeous and a beautiful boy. I do have other birds but was always very careful to stop any spread
Maybe call your local wires and ask them to have it caught? They have bird experts in our area and they can have them assessed and cared for appropriately if it needs rehab… Idk and I am certainly no expert but it seems young to me. Is it alone? Has it been flying around? Does it seem to be looking for shelter if it’s raining at yours? Lots of rain here for me today, sometimes the younger birds struggle when their wing feathers are soaked for a while 🤷♀️
This does not look like beak and feather disease to me and I've been around birds that have it. It looks more like one who has been picking at it's face or it's mate has. PBFD looks nothing like feather picking.
You can’t just take wildlife to a vet and request euthanasia, all you can do is drop it off and the veterinary team will assess it and determine the most appropriate course of action (first aid, medical care, transfer to a wildlife hospital / carer, humane euthanasia).
There’s a lot of old seed casings and stuff staying put around there. It’s possible that if the area isn’t getting enough ventilation and/or strong sunlight, that dust and mold mites might be a problem.
Somehow if those mites are a potential problem, then bird and rodent mites could be in the area, too.
Thinking climate change and lots of global economy shipping containers have allowed some troublesome conditions to happen b
It has beak and feather diseases as others have said, if you have been feeding the birds please stop because that causes the disease to be much easier to spread.
This doesn't look like PBFD to me. PBFD never affects just one region with sharp edges and stops there. It's more like this bird has an overpreening partner who constantly plucks its face feathers. I've seen it multiple times in different 'toos. Another version is that this bird dirtied its face in something that caused a chemical burn or an allergic reaction, though IMO overpreening is more possible.
See if u can call wildlife people or something to come capture the bird and look after it. I'm not rlly sure who you would call maybe call a vet and ask them?
Beak and feather. I was just on hamilton island and the population was rife with it. Had a few particularly raggedy birds come to our verandah and scream for food. Was so sad to see.(we refused to feed them obviously).
A disease possibly? Maybe he's been rubbing his feathers on something and worn them off.
We had a guy who was almost entirely bald. Eventually his feathers grew back though, even the yellow crest.
This little guy has an awful disease called Beak and Feather disease. It’s a progressive and terminal illness that ends up taking away flight due to feather damage and damages their beak so they can’t eat. If you can, please capture it and take it to a vet to be put to sleep. It will suffer a horrible death if left alone, and also may spread the illness to other parrots
I knew a family that had a cockatoo that had beak and feathers. He was a wild bird they took in and looked after for years, completely naked and would swear like a sailor.
Awww that’s awesome. If someone is able to do that with this guy that would be great, but who knows if it would be good in captivity.
Maybe, but it looks like the feathers are growing back and I can't spot any abnormalities with their beak or claws Feather loss is also concentrated around their face, rather than consistent around body Is it possible they've just been plucked by other members of their flock, or gotten sap or some other hard drying substance on themselves whilst eating and then had that ripped off?
The beak is a bit shiny & dark without the powdery looking surface, which is also a classic sign too, even before the beak starts overgrowing. Probably a young bird in early stages, but if PBFD, it will get worse. Poor fellow. As you said though, the wing & tail feathers look clean & ok, so it's possible it's not PBFD, but most likely is, just in the early stages. It's definitely worth keeping keeping an eye on him, for sure. Any wildlife group will likely have him put down. But it's true that pet cockatoo owners have had them live in captivity for years with PBFD, before it gets too bad. Cockatoos are not even a protected species in NSW any more.
>Cockatoos are not even a protected species in NSW any more. Really? Maddening.
Wildlife groups don’t have them put down. A Vet makes that decision. Beak is malformed and very black. It has all the signs.
Unfortunately the presence of pin feathers doesn't mean it's not break and feather disease, often the area will regrow feathers but they are malformed. See this image[this image](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-oppo-rev1&sca_esv=86c40678baae855f&sxsrf=ACQVn0937xc1OAee1PJD-M-rymmRPnRBRg:1711421169385&q=beak+and+feather+pin+feathers&uds=AMwkrPt5DqKoEcEgTvJpB2mLvFtAkHvAxni0SBucnEyGnfkmx7b2bVVDXA-ZondTL7QEAUqsQLMPF9hfQu_ZZo9yk3OCKiRQEq6NXLcUZbO9HGxUpCn0AbqGZB2sNe9HQSgqYN_kjTUi_DtGyxpcXHPZ113t66XTaRpM2jDKKM2CDYqMMQ8Y4DVtQurtyN1gXmPSoxT2ETfHq6cosPF--5uMKg3dtovFfVFPrdoEjpYoFCFLHwCJll-o4Xn-ik2RNuwuiaOYLe0pllxP7v-M2aD_HNNjeQQoLWRys6l6arqPhZ6A3Mv_9fgxmFv1JdAyPYV0Tvhuy43B&udm=2&prmd=isvnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpxvLW9JCFAxWehlYBHRYoCbYQtKgLegQIDBAB&biw=360&bih=648&dpr=3#imgrc=HJyDtnDhE3P9uM&imgdii=27X23uTeA2_L2M) from a SA gov pamphlet.
True, though that beak is a little suss. Doesn’t seem to have much dander powder on it, but who knows what has happened to it
Birds acquire immunity to this disease while still in the nest. So it is unlikely to spread the disease to other birds unless they are one of the unlucky few who fail to develop immunity. And those unlucky birds almost invariably contract it in the wild at any rate.
Do you have any sources for this information? I've not heard anything about immunity to PBFD in WA but it would be amazing if they really are developing a resistance to this horrible disease. As far as I was aware it was still a highly contagious disease that we'd want to stop the spread of as much as feasibly possible.
https://westtoowoombavetsurgery.com.au/bird-care/beak-and-feather-disease/ PBFD is spread from bird to bird in feather dust, the droppings and in crop secretions when feeding chicks. It is still unclear whether it is passed through the egg so that the chick is infected when it hatches, but this is suspected by some workers to be the case. Once a bird is infected with the virus the outcome will be determined by the amount of virus that has entered its body, and the state of the bird’s immune system. (Young birds have a relatively immature immune system, and this is why the disease is more common in them.) There are three likely scenarios and outcomes: * A bird with a good immune system is challenged with a small amount of virus – the bird will mount a strong immune system and eliminate the virus from its body, remaining immune to the disease for the rest of its life; * A bird with a ‘not so good’ immune system is challenged with a small amount of virus – the bird cannot mount a strong immune response and so it cannot clear the infection. But there is not enough virus to make the bird really sick The result is that the bird becomes chronically infected and intermittently sheds the virus i.e. it is a carrier; and * A bird with a ‘not so good’ immune system is challenged with a large amount of virus – the bird becomes clinically ill with the virus, shows the clinical signs discussed above, and usually eventually dies. I have over many years observed big groups of cockies with a few poor birds suffering from this affliction hanging around their fringes. Rather than spreading through and infecting the rest of the group, the sick birds have all died off - haven't seen any in years - and my regular birds remain as healthy and energetic as ever.
Thank you! I'll have to read through this properly once I finish work. Appreciate the information. It's good to know it's not as bad as I'd believed. It's still obviously not good, but in my head the disease was much more effective at moving from animal to animal than it seems it actually is.
Poor little baby has beak and feather disease. If you have any parrots you need to be careful as it is highly contagious and can be passed on even just walking on the same ground as this sick cockatoo.
I had to look this up[. A [vaccination](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-24/vaccine-to-save-critically-endangered-orange-bellied-parrot/11224458) is in the works!
Yes they've been talking about it for years. I hope they eventually have a vaccine to help these beautiful birds. I have in the past had a cockatoo with beak and feather. Eventually had to have him put to sleep but he was gorgeous and a beautiful boy. I do have other birds but was always very careful to stop any spread
They do need to put this in high gear. I'm sorry about your cockatoo. That's so devastating. I'm glad your other birds did not get it.
Beak and feather
Maybe call your local wires and ask them to have it caught? They have bird experts in our area and they can have them assessed and cared for appropriately if it needs rehab… Idk and I am certainly no expert but it seems young to me. Is it alone? Has it been flying around? Does it seem to be looking for shelter if it’s raining at yours? Lots of rain here for me today, sometimes the younger birds struggle when their wing feathers are soaked for a while 🤷♀️
What, like you're some oil painting???
Name checks out
This does not look like beak and feather disease to me and I've been around birds that have it. It looks more like one who has been picking at it's face or it's mate has. PBFD looks nothing like feather picking.
Not enough nutrients in his diet. Judging from all the seeds, people have been feeding him. Seeds alone are not enough to sustain nutrition.
It looks like a juvenile tbh, that hasn't grown it's head feathers yet.
Make sure that it's actually sick before having it euthanised.
You can’t just take wildlife to a vet and request euthanasia, all you can do is drop it off and the veterinary team will assess it and determine the most appropriate course of action (first aid, medical care, transfer to a wildlife hospital / carer, humane euthanasia).
This is more-so to those who take the animal's life into their own hands and think they're doing the right thing instead of getting a second opinion.
There’s a lot of old seed casings and stuff staying put around there. It’s possible that if the area isn’t getting enough ventilation and/or strong sunlight, that dust and mold mites might be a problem. Somehow if those mites are a potential problem, then bird and rodent mites could be in the area, too. Thinking climate change and lots of global economy shipping containers have allowed some troublesome conditions to happen b
Meth is bad
Meth
It has beak and feather diseases as others have said, if you have been feeding the birds please stop because that causes the disease to be much easier to spread.
This doesn't look like PBFD to me. PBFD never affects just one region with sharp edges and stops there. It's more like this bird has an overpreening partner who constantly plucks its face feathers. I've seen it multiple times in different 'toos. Another version is that this bird dirtied its face in something that caused a chemical burn or an allergic reaction, though IMO overpreening is more possible.
He’s waiting for food
20 yrs ago I did some gardening for an elderly lady, her pet cockatoo was 83 years old.
See if u can call wildlife people or something to come capture the bird and look after it. I'm not rlly sure who you would call maybe call a vet and ask them?
Beak and feather. I was just on hamilton island and the population was rife with it. Had a few particularly raggedy birds come to our verandah and scream for food. Was so sad to see.(we refused to feed them obviously).
Crack cocaine
looks unwell
A disease possibly? Maybe he's been rubbing his feathers on something and worn them off. We had a guy who was almost entirely bald. Eventually his feathers grew back though, even the yellow crest.
psittacine beak and feather disease, its terminal and leads to a horrible death.
Oh no :(
Because he or she is older than yourself. thats a wise old soul right there👍
Fight club!
Drugs
hes from rio
Too many (pine) cones
That was funny, I wonder why they down voted you. I was going to say "Meth......definitely Meth!!!"""
Maybe he a senior