COVER ARTICLE: Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo would have to be the most commonly encountered/heard of all the black cockatoos along the southeastern parts of Australia and is a very common visitor within the suburbs oflocal major cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. With this it is no wonder that it was one of the first of the black cockatoos that found popularity. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) Calyptorhynchus Calyptos-Greek for hidden Rhynchus-Greek for beak Funerues-Latin for black/funeral Weight -(approx) 800g Length-(approx) 650-700mm There are two subspecies of the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, the largest and nominate is from Northern Victoria through New South Wales and into central Queensland, Calyptorhynchus funereus xanthanotus is a lot smaller that its northern cousin. Weight-(approx) 600g Length-(approx) 550-600mm Population covers southern Victoria into the South Australian boarder and throughout Tasmania as well as a small population that exists on Kangaroo Island. There have been many sightings of Cf. xanthanotus in large flocks of 300-400 flying between Kangaroo Island and the mainland. It has been noticed within the species that as the bird's population travels to the west of the country, the smaller the birds become as well as variations in the feather coloration. The yellow becomes more prominent in color. Yellow-tails that are found in Tasmania are very similar to the nominate race but are a little smaller in size. When viewing these birds in flight one often wonders how they stay in the air as their wing movements seem very slow and lazy. The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo is more often heard by its unmistaken call before it is seen. During the hotter months (November-February) large flocks can be seen as they feed on the Banksia cones that are planted around local parks and gardens. Their diet consists of various fruits and seeds from a vast variety of native and introduced trees such as the acacias, eucalyptus and the introduced pine tree. They love breaking open the pinecones for the pine nut inside. I have observed the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo on numerous times striping a tree trunk to find and extract wood boring larvae.