Cockatiel
Nymphicus hollandicus· 凤头鹦鹉科(2 photos)
Cockatiel
30-33 cm. Male: distinctive with pale yellow crest and face, orange-red ear spot; otherwise grey with prominent white shoulders. Female: head greyer; outer tail feathers/underwing pale yellow, finely barred grey; flight-feathers toothed white. Immature: like dull adults. Pairs, parties, flocks: feeds on ground; settles on dead trees, often along limbs. Flight easy; with swept wings, longish tail.
- Other name
- Cockatoo-Parrot; Quarrion.
- Voice
- rolling chirrup, hence Aboriginal 'Quarrion'; penetrating 'queel, queel'.
- Habitat
- near water in open woodlands; scrublands, plains; timber on watercourses; spinifex, sorghum, sunflowers, stubbles, spilt grain on roadsides.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Dec. in s. inland, autumn-winter in n.
- Nest
- in tree-hollow, near water.
- Eggs
- 4-7; white, rounded.
- Range & Status
- mainland Aust., except C. York Pen. (Q), wetter coastal areas, forests, driest deserts. In spring-summer, moves from inland to breed in better-watered pastoral, cereal-growing country; visits coastal n. Aust. in dry season. Highly nomadic: movements influenced by rainfall.
