I don't know much about cockatoos (I own two beautiful budgies abd they're quite enough for me :)) But I wanted to ask a few questions. There is this cockatoo that lives in a house I pass as i walk up to school. I've noticed it's always in it's cage but thought that the owner possibly takes it out or plays with it when I wouldn't be aroudn to see it, as I only walk past in the morning and afternoons.

But yesterday when my boyfriend and I were just walking around I decided to stop and have a look. The bird cage is kept on a front veranda with glass walls on the side and mesh screen on the front. There were bushes growing up in front of it so I never got a proper look before.

Yesterday however I walked into the yard of the house next door (hoping no one was home..) and had a look through the glass side of the veranda. It made me very sad, almost wishing I hadn’t.

The bird has no feathers on its chest, it's completely bald. By the look of it it's had no feathers for so long I'd be surprised it they ever grew back.

It's cree (the yellow feathers on top of it's head?) was scraggy and thin. Its perch was set too high in it's cage so where it sat the cree rubbed on the top of the cage. I couldn't see any other perches.

It's beak was very overgrown I think. How long is a cockatoo's beak supposed to be? This one had a long thin bit at the end of about 2 cms which looked to me as if it was overgrown.

Its cage was a parrot cage, but still not big enough for it to be in all the time. It's perch was square. It looked almost like a chair leg or a scrap piece of wood had been put in there as a perch. It did not look at all comfortable. Are cockatoo’s supposed to have square perches? I'd think they would be bad for the feet?

It looked at us as we were looking at it. It blinked. That was it. Sometimes when I walk up to school I've heard it screeching and seen movement which I think was it climbing on the side of its cage.

I talked to a friend of mine who lives just up the road from it, he told me he used to walk past the bird ever day when he walked to primary school. He also mentioned it's beak was overgrown. We were in primary school 6 years ago. It makes me cringe to think that bird has been sitting there everyday for that long...

I could see no toys in his cage and he hardly moved at all. My mind has been concocting schemes of rescue ever since yesterday when I saw him. The most basic of which is go up to the door, knock and ask 'Were you by any chance looking for a new home for your bird? Because I'd happily take him.'

I live out of town and I have a cage my dad made to use for a pigeon aviary. The pigeons have since moved to another one my dad built and the old one is being used as a shed of sorts. I could clean it up, put natural perches from eucalyptus trees in there and get my dad to fix up the sheltered part where he could go to get out of the wind or rain. I'd feed and give him water, and he'd get to screech along with all the wild birds.

I know it's a crazy idea and the owners would probably just turn me away. I don't even know if life in an aviary would be better or worse for this bird. I also feel bad because maybe the owners really love the bird and just don't know how to take care of him properly. Or maybe I just don’t know the whole story and I’m jumping to conclusions.

Anyway, I just wondered if people would give me their opinion on the health of the bird and weather it is being treated badly or I’m just assuming things. Any advice would help!