Cassowary catch up

Since my last update I had only one more sighting of both birds together, when they joined me in the shadehouse for a few minutes, and then the adult male has appeared by himself on several occasions and seems much more relaxed. I had one sighting of the juvenile cassowary walking along the water’s edge of the ’07 wetland a few weeks ago. Then this week he/she made a nervous approach to the fruiting Jaboticaba outside the kitchen, obviously very aware that he was encroaching on ‘Dad’s’ territory and ready to run. Allen tried getting a photo but the young bird was much too jittery to hang around. It’s a hard time learning to survive on your own.

Although the Jaboticaba has nearly finished this fruiting session we’ve been able to enjoy some good views of the Cassowary as the fruit bats knock down a lot of fruit when they’re feeding at night. It’s a popular area with bird baths at various heights and we watched our handsome Vorwerk rooster attempt to assert his territorial rights with the male Cassowary one afternoon. The result was somewhat predictable but still most amusing. After a couple of warning ‘looks’ did nothing to deter the rooster the Cassowary lowered his head and with feathers swishing from side to side he chased all the domestic chooks around to the other side of the house.

A few days later when the Vorwerks were enjoying some foraging in the garden, and the big bird had been absent for a couple of hours, I went out to take some photos of them.

Just as I had them all in the frame the dominant cockerel gave a warning cackle while looking upwards. With a good idea of what might be causing the alarm I looked over my shoulder to find the big bird close behind so I slowly stood up and offered to take a photo of him too!

I wasn’t frightened as his behaviour is not at all threatening now that he has shed the responsibility of caring for his offspring. All the same, I follow Allen’s example of talking quietly while always looking towards the bird.