- Cacatua haematuropygia
Identification
This bird is endangered. It has a predominantly white plumage, which produces a distinct contrast against the color of the forest making them easy to locate in the dense foliage. An ordinary kalangay measures 33 centimeters in length and weighs 0.29 kilogram. Its unique feature is its conspicuous red under-tail coverts. Adult White; crest, short, the feathers suffused with sulfur-yellow at bases, and more or less washed with vermillion broadly edged with white; remises, on inner webs, sulfur-yellow, on outer webs, white; retraces, on inner webs, except central pair, intense sulfur-yellow, often tinged with reddish or pinkish. Whole white plumage may be faintly with vermillion all over.
Soft parts-iris, blood-red to brown in females, dark brown to black in males; bare orbital area, creamy white; bill, leaden at base, white at tip; legs and feet, black; claws, black. and it measures a total length of 330mm; wing, 214; tail,105; bill 32; tarsus,21.
Distribution
Only found in the Philippines
Taxonomy
The Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia), also known as the exotic Kalangay, is a species belonging to Psittacidae or the family of parrots.
Habitat
Emergent trees 30-40 m tall are usually used as nesting sites, and coconut plantations on offshore islands as roosting sites.
Behaviour
It feeds on the seeds and fruits of wild trees or, in cultivated areas, on rice or corn. They wander in small flocks outside of the breeding season, and visit forest edges and nearby plantations for food. The female normally lays two eggs, which hatch after about 24 days.
The members of a flock utter harsh grating sound as they fly about in their search for food. they are attracted to cornfields when the ears are ripening. Here, they usually cause a lot of damage. They also feed on wild bananas but never on cultivated ones.
The birds often perch motionless on a bare branch of tree in the open and stay there for long periods, once in a while giving out their harsh grating notes. Later on, some birds will start to move slowly about the branches, up and down, with aid of both bill and feet.
