Noisy Cockatoo next door

Hi,

I am hoping someone has some creative solutions for me as we are losing our minds!

I am an animal lover but I have a neighbor with a very loud, squawking Cockatoo anytime it is outside. My neighbor is a psycho who is beyond trying to talk to ... she had her birds wings clipped and has a cage on her deck and the bird is loose all spring, summer and fall. This thing is so loud we can hear it in our house next door - it's all day/every day. To make things worse her bird perches in my trees and eats these berries and small pears and sits right across our fence line. My dog goes crazy and is ready to eat this thing.

I need to know what I can do to quiet this bird in a humane way.

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS IF YOUR ADVICE IS GENERIC OR TELLS ME TO GO AND TALK TO THEM.

Thanks for any assistance.

Would your neighbor go nuts if you got the bird some toys or something to keep it occupied instead if it just squaking wildly? The only way I can imagine getting that to work is to try to keep the bird distracted in some way.

Just out of curiosity, is this an apartment situation or are you just in a neighboring house? It might be worth a call to the landlord if it's a rental.

Noisy cockatoos are a very common complaint, and, I'm sorry to say that there isn't much that YOU can do other than talk to the owners. Cockatoo noise is as much related to how the owner handles the cockatoo as a poorly behaved child is to how a parent handles their kids.

I'm not sure of your living situation, or how populated the area is that you are living in is; but, are there other neighbors in the area that are being imposed upon as well? Could you all get together and approach the owner as a group? Is this a situation where you might have a property manager (like a condo association, or the like) who you could talk to? As a last ditched effort you could look into local noise ordinances in your community and see what they say, and if you have to, involve the local authorities. I'd hate to see it get to that point; but, if the owned of the cockatoo won't listen to you, she will have to listen to someone else.

Good luck to you, and I'm sorry if this isn't the exact advice you are looking for; but, it's the best I can think of.

Thanks for the prompt reply... this is a suburb and they are single family homes with lots of room between the houses. I have a fence that separates the yard but the bird climbs up the bushes and into my yard.

I can try but would rather not toss a toy or game into their yard as they will know it's me... She's very aware and all of the neighbors are furious as this has been going on for years here. I just bought the house 3 years ago and it's getting worse! I'm assuming she leaves the bird alone in the yard while she goes off and does other things - and probably bored.

I'm pretty sure that if the bird is "trespassing" your property, the local authorities could probably at least give a warning to the owner. Unfortunately, cockatoos take time and devotion to raise properly (that goes for parrots in general), it might be behavioral issues. On the other hand, cockatoos are very vocal about their emotions too - screams of happiness, joy, anger, irritation, boredom, and for-the-fun-of-it are not uncommon.

Maybe you could visit your town/county hall to ask if there is anything that can be done to turn the owner's attention?

Call animal control. People do not have the right to let their pets create a nuisance. You have an obvious noise complaint and if the bird is left out when no one is home, and trespassing in your yard, the owner is guilty of neglect. The bird needs help as much as you do - before your dog, or some other predator, gets him.

FrustratedNeighbor said:

I'm assuming she leaves the bird alone in the yard while she goes off and does other things - and probably bored.

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If you aren't a bird person you have made a very astute observation. What tends to happen, with all parrots but commonly with 'toos, is that when the owner first receives the 'too they are all cuddly and loving and inspirable ... as the owner tires of the parrot they tend to not allocate as much time for the parrot as they did when the parrot first arrived, and the parrot doesn't understand - Cockatoos tend to THRIVE on human (or flock) interaction ... hence why this issue has probably progressively gotten worse.

sonja said:

Call animal control. People do not have the right to let their pets create a nuisance. You have an obvious noise complaint and if the bird is left out when no one is home, and trespassing in your yard, the owner is guilty of neglect. The bird needs help as much as you do - before your dog, or some other predator, gets him.

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I'm with you on this one. People do not have the right to let their pet/s create a nuisance. The lady needs to bring the bird inside to help contain its noise. Maybe that's why she leaves the bird outside all day. If you have your neighbors behind you, I would take it to her first, if no resolution then I would call animal control. If the bird is coming on to your property, you have the right to trap it and call animal control. It's your neighbors responsibility to restrain her animal, if she is failing to do this, you can take action.

Practically, the best thing I can suggest is start researching the specific local laws regarding nuisance levels of noise, and to start documenting the times that the bird is noisy by means of keeping a diary and recording samples of the bird's noise levels. If you have spoken to the neighbor document that as well, along with their response. Then you can present the relevant authority with enough information with which to take action. The law should clearly be on your side with this one, and if it turns out that the bird is not being properly cared for then there is an issue to be dealt with there as well.

Thanks for the advice. I will start to document and record the noise but I believe it's the same as a barking dog. As long as its after 7am and before 10pm there's nothing you can do about it. The bird has a tag on its foot so I know it's registered or licensed and it would be odd for me to trap it and call animal control since I know who's bird it is.

She is well aware that this bird squawks as loud as it does and she doesn't care as her dog is loose in the neighborhood too - she's the nuisance not the animals. Shame as its a pretty bird and is in my trees almost every other day.
There are tons of hawks and other predators since we back up to the woods and not other houses - what's a natural predator to a cockatoo?

FrustratedNeighbor said:

Thanks for the advice. I will start to document and record the noise but I believe it's the same as a barking dog. As long as its after 7am and before 10pm there's nothing you can do about it. The bird has a tag on its foot so I know it's registered or licensed and it would be odd for me to trap it and call animal control since I know who's bird it is.

She is well aware that this bird squawks as loud as it does and she doesn't care as her dog is loose in the neighborhood too - she's the nuisance not the animals. Shame as its a pretty bird and is in my trees almost every other day.
There are tons of hawks and other predators since we back up to the woods and not other houses - what's a natural predator to a cockatoo?

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Most big 'toos can hold their own against many birds of prey. I'll agree with the documenting, record conversations if possible, either by jotting down or with actual recordings. Time/date stamp them. Dogs barking between 7am and 10pm although isn't generally a problem, constant barking can be reported and the owner has to do something about it.

We have neighbours and we're very conscious about noise with our birds. We keep them covered until 8/9am and it's "bedtime mode" from 10pm onwards, but even during the day, if we feel they're being constantly noisey, we make a naptime for them to at least give the neighbours some peace. It's unfair to expect you (and others) to deal with it, she signed up for the cockatoo, you did not.

I say get in touch with authorities, maybe a nice big notice from them will change her attitude. If not, keep pushing. You are in the right about this - and if she's not even trying...

FrustratedNeighbor said:

Thanks for the advice. I will start to document and record the noise but I believe it's the same as a barking dog. As long as its after 7am and before 10pm there's nothing you can do about it. The bird has a tag on its foot so I know it's registered or licensed and it would be odd for me to trap it and call animal control since I know who's bird it is.

She is well aware that this bird squawks as loud as it does and she doesn't care as her dog is loose in the neighborhood too - she's the nuisance not the animals. Shame as its a pretty bird and is in my trees almost every other day.
There are tons of hawks and other predators since we back up to the woods and not other houses - what's a natural predator to a cockatoo?

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Unless your city/town/county has noise abatement ordinances or nuisance ordinances.....

It is not awkward to trap the bird and take him to animal control. She will likely have to pay a fine to get him back so she may learn a lesson. Or better yet she'll surrender him and he can go to a rescue. I had a dog that used to come to my yard all the time. First time I returned him to his owner. Every other time I sent him to the shelter. If the owner doesn't care enough to keep their animal contained the animal is in danger.