The Northern subspecies of Red-tailed Black Cockatoo has a wide distribution and is not considered endangered. Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos may live for about 20 years in the wild, and much longer in captivity. Young birds reach maturity in about 4 years. Even large birds will be fed regurgitated food by their parents. It will remain with its parents long after it has learned to fly, begging for food with a whispery, high-pitched whine. The young bird is fledged in about 10 to 12 weeks. They grasp the beak of the young, and pump partially digested seeds from their own crops into the baby’s beak. The hatchling soon becomes covered with dense yellow downy feathers.īoth parents feed the young, in the morning and the evening, entering the nest hollow tail-first. After that, she will sit only at night, for a further week or so till the egg hatches. For two or three weeks she will brood the egg day and night, while the male brings her food. The female lays only one oval, white egg. The parrots chew the inside of the nest hole to make a layer of wood chips on the floor. The holes may be located from 2 m (6 1/2 ft) above the ground to as high as 30 m (nearly 98 ft) in heavy karri forest in Western Australia. Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos nest in any trees which have nesting holes of a suitable size, usually larger than about 180 mm in diameter (7 in). The small population in Victoria/South Australia breeds from October to May. Nesting takes place from March to July in the Northern Territory, May to September in Queensland, and either March to April or July to October in Western Australia. Apparently this is attractive to the female! After mating, the male feeds the female. None of these sub-species is found in Tasmania.ĭuring courtship, the male struts along a tree branch bowing towards the female, with his tail feathers fanned out, and his head feathers all ruffed up, giving a low, gurgling sound. It is isolated and rare, living in stringybark forests on the border between southeastern South Australia and Victoria. This is the southeastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, C. The fourth subspecies is small, with small beaks and brightly coloured females.

banksii samuelli, the Inland subspecies, lives in the wheat belt of Western Australia and gum-lined river systems of inland Australia east to the Darling River. banksii naso is found in jarrah forests of southwestern Western Australia.Ī small race with small beaks and dull-coloured females, C. Here in north Queensland is the largest sub-species, Calyptorhynchus banksii macrorhynchus it is found across northern Australia from the Kimberleys in Western Australia, all around the north coast down to northeastern New South Wales.Ī smaller, large-beaked subspecies, the Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, C. They differ in size as well as in their food preferences. There are actually 4 subspecies of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, found in different parts of Australia.

Female red tailed cockatoo