2. What the Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo looks like?
What the Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo eats?
Why the Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo is
endangered ?
Other basic facts about the Red-Tailed
Black-Cockatoo
3. Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoos can grow up to
65 cm’s long
The male is black with a white crest, has a
large dark grey bill and it has 2 red stripes on
it’s black tail
The females are a lighter black than the
males, are orange-yellow speckled on their
chests plus faces and have orange-yellow
stripes on their tails
The male is 670 to 920 grams while the
female is 615 to 870 grams
4. Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo’s eat stringy
bark, seeds and have adapted bills to open
marri nuts and extract the seeds
They also tend to eat larger fruited species
of gum trees
Since humans came they have started eating
double gees.
5. Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo’s are widespread
and are usually found in eucalyptus woodlands
or along water courses
They are found across the northern part of
Australia, QLD, northern NSW, central NT and
west and south west WA
6. The biggest threat to the Cockatoo is habitat
loss, caused by either deforestation or bush
fires
Bush fire can impact on the stringy bark
fruiting for up to 10 years which is one of the
birds main food sources
Some other threats include lack of eucalypt
breeding sites, weeds, storms and illegal
poaching of chicks (baby Cockatoo’s)
7. The Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo’s nesting season
is between March and August/September
the eggs hatch 28-30 days later
The birds drink water stored in their hollow
Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoos are raucous and
noisy
This species sometimes fly in small flocks with
other birds or large flocks of up to 200
They fly at quite a height and are generally shy
of humans
8. The Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo is native to
Australia
Out of all the Black-Cockatoos the Red-Tailed
is the most adaptable to breeding in
captivity but the rarest
It was the first Australian Cockatoo to be
illustrated
The bird was illustrated by a member of the
Endeavor, sailing with Captain Cook in 1770
One local male can still fly without tail
feathers (mentioned in POST)
9.
10. Books/ Magazines/Newspapers
Olsen, P. (2008) Southeastern Red-Tailed Black-
Cockatoo, The State of Australia’s Birds 2008, 32.
Schodde, R. Tidemann, S. (1998) Complete book of
Australian Birds, Readers Digest, Sydney.
Owen, M (2012) It Flies Like a Scimitar, POST Oct 13th
2012, 26.
Internet Sites
Wikipedia. (9th August 2012). Red-Tailed Black-
Cockatoo, 20th August
2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-TailedBlack-
Cockatoo
Oiseaux-birds. (august 27th 2012) Red-Tailed Black-
Cockatoo, August 27th 2012, http://www.oiseaux-
birds.com/card-red-tailed-black-cockatoo.html
