Galahs Poem by Francis Duggan

The best known of the cockatoo family
They lay their eggs high up in hole in tree
And they live in flocks up to a thousand sometimes two
The galah alias the Rosehill cockatoo.

The cash crop farmer find cause to complain
The galahs come at dawn to eat his grain
A tenth of this year's crop by birds destroyed
His profit gone his patience has been tried.

Destructive birds some have been known to say
But they look beautiful in pink and gray
And a flock of galahs in the morning sky
A thing of beauty is a thing of joy.

At dawn of day they leave their roosting trees
And as they fly they pipe their melodies
You hear them once you know their voice again
The galahs song with you will long remain.

Gregarious birds their numbers multiply
And the flocks grow bigger as the years go by
And angry farmer has been known to say
I hate those cockatoos in pink and gray.

In Australia these birds were never rare
And their numbers on the increase every where
And they live in flocks up to a thousand sometimes two
The galah alias the Rosehill cockatoo.