One day he appeared in a tree in my back yard. He kept coming back so I put a small wood shelf in the tree with bird seed, & he kept coming back every day to eat. After about a week I found a huge used wrought iron bird cage for sale (seriously huge, I could walk inside it to clean it) & rigged pulleys & rope so I could hoist it up into the tree, near the platform with food, along with a rope tied to the cage door that I ran through a window into the house, so I could pull the rope from inside the house & close the door on the cage.
Then, over several days, I moved the platform with food closer & closer to the cage until it was inside. Finally, one day he went inside to eat & I pulled the rope through the house window to close the cage door. Then I got a ladder to latch the door, & lowered him down out of the tree. I'll never forget how, the first time I put my finger into the cage, just minutes after I lowered him down, he did the "chewing gum" thing with his tongue (you can see it in the video), lifted his crest to expose the "bald spot" on top of his head, & put his head down so I could rub it. I started rubbing the top of his head & he was a very happy cockatoo.
Of course I took him to an avian veterinarian & spent several weeks trying to find his owner, with no luck. The vet noted he didn't have a leg band, which at that time was required for legitimate dealers (in the state I lived in at that time, at least), so he had probably been wild-caught & illegally smuggled into the US. There was a pet store about 20 miles away that was rumored to have "less than honest" business practices that had a fire a couple weeks before he appeared in my back yard, & (thankfully!) a lot of animals escaped, including several birds. Our best guess is that's where he came from.
I shared many wonderful years with him. I never considered myself a "bird person" but he stole my heart. It's amazing how smart & affectionate they can be. And in the video they show a bit of cockatoo "dancing," but get out a spray bottle full of warm water & watch what happens. He would spread his wings out, bounce up & down, shrieking, & then plunge forward & hang upside down while I sprayed him down & soaked him. It was one of his favorite things & he was just hilarious.
And the door on his "cage" was always open. He had the run of the house. There's no way I could keep such a wonderful creature locked up. He liked to stay in his own room (yes, he had a room) & the wood window sills & all wood trim were completely chewed, but I didn't mind.
Edit to add: The vet & I eventually decided that because he had been wild-caught (not hand raised) he would never be truly happy in captivity, so he's now with the Gabriel Foundation, a rescue organization for parrots, where they can live in a natural environment. Giving him up truly hurt me, but it was best for him.
[link:https://thegabrielfoundation.org/|]
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