Cockatoo

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo

Cacatua galerita

WHO’S A CLEVER BIRD?

‘Cockies’ are the most curious, intelligent and talkative of all parrots. Their raucous ‘aarch, aarch' screeching is often heard in the forests and woodlands of eastern and southeast Australia, including Tasmania. Their fluorescent yellow crest is raised in alarm - or to impress a female.

 NUT CRACKERS

The cockie’s amazingly powerful and flexible bill can crack nuts and rip branches open to get at grubs. This versatile bill is also used to assist climbing. The solid, agile tongue helps the birds to swallow their food very quickly.

Notice that two toes point forwards and two point backwards. This allows cockatoos to climb well and manipulate objects precisely. 

 SAFETY IN NUMBERS

Parrots are unusual in combining lifelong monogamy with group living. Small to large flocks of cockatoos stay in the same area all year round. They leave their roosting trees at sunrise to fly to their feeding grounds, where at least one bird keeps watch from a nearby tree while the others feed.

A CHEERFUL PAIR

A low chuckling call is the sound of a courting male. Nodding his head, he struts the female with crest erect and towards the tail feathers spread wide. Soon the happy pair are preening one another's plumage. The parents share the work of building a nest in an old hollow tree and bringing up the family. One to three eggs are incubated for a month. The young leave the nest when six to nine weeks old but remain with the parents for life. Mature males are brown-eyed and females often have lighter, reddish-brown eyes.