Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
Calyptorhynchus banksii· 凤头鹦鹉科(5 photos)
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
50-64 cm. The only black cockatoo in much of n. and far inland. Male: black, with clear scarlet panels in tail. Bill blackish, very robust (especially in race macrorhynchus of Kimberley (WA) and Top End (NT)); crest helmet-like, erectile. Female and immature: bill whitish; yellow spots on head, neck, wings; breast-feathers barred orange-yellow; tail panels orange-yellow, barred black. Pairs to flocks of hundreds; sometimes thousands: feeds in foliage and on ground; in s. WA, associates with other black-cockatoos. Flight steady, level, with majestic, deep, slow wingbeats. Conspicuous at water early, late in day.
- Similar Species
- Glossy Black-Cockatoo.
- Voice
- far-carrying, drawn-out trumpet: 'kreee', like rusty windmill.
- Habitat
- tall open forests; woodlands (in w. Vic.-se. SA, dependent on remnant stringybark and Buloke); grasslands, scrublands, floodplains, river margins, wetlands; river red gums on watercourses.
- Breeding
- July-Oct.; March-April in s. Aust.; April-July in n.
- Nest
- decayed debris in tree-hollow, usually high.
- Eggs
- 1, occasionally 2; white.
- Range & Status
- several populations, ranging in size and bill structure from the large, massive-billed macrorhynchus of tropical n. Aust. to the smaller samueli of inland e. Aust.: (1) most of Q; formerly coastal ne. NSW; regular s. to Darling R. in w. NSW, casual further s. and e. to Ivanhoe, Nyngan, Narrabri; (2) tropical n. Aust., from Kimberley (WA) into NT/Q; (3) far sw. Vic. and far se. SA (race graptogyne); (4) forests of far sw WA; (5) Central Ras., s. NT and nw. SA (Everard Ras.),WA wheatbelt to Hamersley Ras.-e. Pilbara. Rare and declining in se. Aust.; common interior and n. Aust.; recovering in WA. Sedentary; seasonally nomadic, part-migratory.
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Calyptorhynchus banksii banksii 2. Calyptorhynchus banksii macrorhynchus 3. Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne 4. Calyptorhynchus banksii naso 5. Calyptorhynchus banksii samueli
