Parrot Eyes

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Galah

Some of my friends always made fun of Bandit, my galah also known as a rose breasted cockatoo, for the bright red around his eyes. They always called him “bug eyes” and stuff like that. Since he has such an amazingly cute personality, they didn’t make fun of him too much! However, Bondi is my first rose breasted cockatoo and she’s a female and doesn’t have the red around her eyes like Bandit does.

Deep down I’ve wondered about the red around his eyes. Recently a visit to my vet changed everything…

At my vet’s office they got a rescue rose breasted cockatoo named Mercury and let me tell you… this bird looked terrible.

It’s pink was more of the color of our bird’s pink when they’re wet, and its grey was so dark it resembled our african grey’s “grey” plumage. Nothing about the bird looked right – including its eyes.

My vet went on to tell me it sat on the same perch for 18 years and had a serious case of bumblefoot. It was also fed nothing but seeds and that was what made its plumage coloration so off. You could tell the bird wasn’t healthy and luckily one of the people working at the vet’s office had taken it in and adopted it.

The coloration around its eyes should have been like Bandit’s, which is apparently very normal and healthy in rose breasted cockatoos who get natural sunlight they need to be getting. Instead, Mercury had a yellow/orange coloration around his eyes showing definite signs of nutritional and environmental deficiencies.

Galah

This picture is of Bondi, my four year old cockatoo. Female galahs/rose breasted cockatoos don’t get the red around their eyes like the males and it’s a sure way to tell them apart.

However, if the captive male galah isn’t getting any outdoor sunlight then his eyes will look like the females and it won’t be an indicator of gender anymore. Take, for example, the cockatoo we recently adopted. He is the same age as Bandit and is Bandit’s brother. He lived in a warehouse where we flew a lot but didn’t get direct sunlight. Notice how his eyes look more like Bondi’s?

Galah

This is Ace. He is Bandit’s brother… same age, same species, same gender… different environment. Bandit freeflies outside and has an outdoor aviary he is in a lot of the time. Ace didn’t have an outdoor aviary and got outside very little with his previous owners as you can tell from the lack of red around his eyes.

Let me tell you, I can’t wait to tell everyone that “bug eyes” is a good thing!