Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo
The Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) is a large glossy brownish-black cockatoo with pale feather margins on the breast feathers, bright yellow ear coverts (female brighter than male) and bright yellow panels spotted and etched with brown in a long black tails (which is over half the body length). Males have pink eye-ring and grey upper beak whilst females have a grey eye-ring and white upper beak.
Their flight is buoyant with deep wing beats and the long tail prominent. They breed in November to February in South Australia. The nests are in decayed debris in large tree hollows usually high. There are 1 to 2 eggs but only one chick survives. The female alone incubates, the male feeding the female throughout the four week period.
This cockatoo prefers forested areas feeding extensively on larvae of wood-boring insects and also seeds of pine trees, banksias and hakeas. (Contributed by Jo G.)
20/01/2009
26/11/2009
27/11/2012
