Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
55-65 cm. Large black cockatoo with pale feather margins, and large pale yellow panels in long tail. Male: bill blackish; eye-ring reddish; dull yellow spot on ear coverts. Female: bill whitish; eye-ring grey; bright yellow spot on ear coverts; yellow tail panels spotted and etched brown. Immature: browner, pale feather margins more prominent; bill pale; eye-ring grey. Pairs, family trios; autumn-winter flocks of hundreds: in coastal e. Aust. tears out sapwood of acacias, eucalypts, casuarinas, grasstrees, exposing 'white grubs'; flocks feed on ground and in foliage on seed-capsules of hakeas, banksias, exotic pines. Flight buoyant with slow, deep wingbeats, long tail prominent. Demonstrative on wing, wheeling, spreading, flashing yellow tail panels, calling.
- Similar Species
- Red-tailed, Glossy Black-Cockatoos.
- Voice
- weird, far-carrying, squealing, 'why-lar' or 'wee-lar'; much conversational chuckling and 'giggling' from flocks in flight. Harsh screeches in alarm; grinding, begging sounds from young.
- Habitat
- temperate rainforests, eucalypt forests; woodlands from sea level to above snowline; heathlands, banksia, hakea, acacia woodlands and scrubs; shelter belts, plantations of eucalypts, exotic conifers, e.g. radiata and Aleppo pines.
- Breeding
- Nov.-Feb. in s. Aust.; March-Aug. in n. NSW and Q.
- Nest
- on decayed debris; in large tree-hollow, usually high.
- Eggs
- 1-2; white, oval; usually only one offspring survives.
- Range & Status
- se. Aust. and Tas.: from Eungella NP and (coastally) from c. Rockhampton (Q), to Kangaroo I. and s. Eyre Pen. (SA); inland to c. Blackall-Cunnamulla (Q), Walgett-Moulamein (NSW); e. and s. Vic., nw. to Little Desert NP. Moderately common; seasonally nomadic or migratory; widespread autumn-winter movements from high country to lowlands (incl. city suburbs).
- Distribution key to races
- 1. Calyptorhynchus funereus funereus 2. Calyptorhynchus funereus whiteae 3. Calyptorhynchus funereus xanthanotus
