Watch the video of the incident.
[rumble video_id=v5c6p3 domain_id=u7nb2]
Video credit: Rumble
A natural reaction, when faced with an animal assault, is to seek shelter or some sort of high ground that the animal hopefully can’t get to (such as a tree). Morgana Boerner faced on such animal “attack” and was forced to seek shelter in her own car. If you thought that a bear or some other ferocious wild animal caused Morgana’s panic, you’d have thought wrong.
It was actually a cheeky cockatoo who forced Morgana to run after it flew in from out of the blue and attempted to steal her earring.
There are 21 varieties of cockatoos mostly distributed along the Australasian region, from the Philippines and Indonesia all the way to Australia. The bird that Morgana filmed is a white cockatoo. It’s also called an umbrella cockatoo and is distinguishable by the feathers on its head rising up when it’s happy.
In the video, as Morgana is cowering in her car, she holds up the mangled earring that was the result of the bird’s aborted robbery attempt. “This is what he did to it,” she says. “I’ve got way too much metal in my face for this bird.”
Morgana then spends the next few minutes squealing as the cockatoo tries to force its way into the car and even tries to chew pieces of its interior. Morgana has to alternate between shooing the bird away and cowering as it tries to come even closer.
Finally, the bird flies off and Morgana breathes a sigh of relief as she gets out of the car saying, “I think I drove it off,” only to realize that it’s there in the middle of the rode preening itself as if boasting of what it did. Crazy bird indeed.
But the bird’s actions can be understood better when we realize that while umbrella cockatoos can be a charming and affectionate pet, it’s also prone to mood swings and dislikes being penned in (to the point that it will sometimes chew its own feathers off in frustration and anxiety).
This probably explains why the bird was flying freely around the neighborhood.
One other thing to take note of is that umbrella cockatoos are also clingy and demand a lot of attention. This is why owners need to know how to set boundaries. Seeing the bird in the video, it seems that a distinct lack of boundaries was in evidence.
Still, at least Morgana managed to keep her earring and was able to get out of her car safely!