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Yellow-crested Cockatoo - BirdForum Opus

Photo by James Eaton
Komodo Island, Indonesia
Cacatua sulphurea

Identification

33 cm, sexes similar

  • White overall plumage
  • Crest (up-curving) and ear coverts yellow
  • Bare orbital skin bluish-white
  • Underside of wings and tail yellow
  • Grey feet
  • Bill black
  • Eye is black in male, reddish-brown in female, pale grey in immature

Distribution

South-east Asia: found in Timor, Bali, Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands.

There is a feral population of these birds in the Sheung Wan area of Hong Kong as well as in Singapore.

Taxonomy

Citron-crested Cockatoo was formerly included in Yellow-crested Cockatoo.

Subspecies

Clements recognises the following subspecies [1]:

  • C. s. abbotti: Masalembu Besar Island (Java Sea)
  • C. s. sulphurea: Sulawesi, Muna, and Butung islands
  • C. s. djampeana: Islands in the Flores Sea: Tanahjampea Islands (Kayuadi, Tanahjampea, Kalao, Kalaotoa and Madu) and Tukangbesi Islands (Wangiwangi, Tomea and Binongko)
  • C. s. occidentalis: Western and central Lesser Sundas (Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, Padar, Rinca, Flores, Pantar and Alor); probably extirpated on Lombok, and critically rare on Sumbawa and Flores
  • C. s. parvula: Central Lesser Sundas (Rote, Semau, and Timor)

Habitat

Woods and cultivated land. Forest edges. Occurs up to 500 m.

Behaviour

Tends to flock.

Diet

Their diet consists of tree seeds, nuts, berries and fruit.

Breeding

They nest in a tree hole. The clutch consists of 2-3 white eggs which are incubated by both parents for about 28 days. The young fledge after 75 days.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
  3. Rowley, I., C. J. Sharpe, and P. F. D. Boesman (2023). Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.yeccoc1.01.1

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

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