Adults: General plumage white. Narrow, forward curving crest yellow. Ear coverts, yellow. Base of cheek, yellow. Throat, yellow. Undersides of flight and tail feathers strongly washed with yellow. Naked eye-ring, white or tinged with blue. Eye, dark brown. Bill, grey-black. Feet and toes, dark grey. Claws, darker.
Immatures: Similar to adults. Very young have tinges of grey on crown, back and wings. Eye, paler brown.
Downy Young: Fine, yellow downed.
Other Names (World)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White Cockatoo(!), Triton’s Cockatoo (triton), Eleonora’s Cockatoo (eleonora)
Food
Seeds of grasses and herbaceous plants, grain, bulbous roots, berries, nuts and leaf buds, often causing considerable damage to crops, particularly oats and maize.
Voice
Call in flight is a very loud, harsh, racous screech, ending with a slight upward inflection. Alarm call a succession of abrupt guttural screeches. Feeding and preening are accompanied by an occasional squawk or shrill two-syllable whistle.
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) [XC502867]
by Marc Anderson from near Malagufuk, Klasow Valley, Sorong, Papua Barat, Indonesia (call)
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) [XC156168]
by Marc Anderson from Batanta Island, Indonesia (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
August - January in south, May - September in north.
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Nest
In a hollow limb or hole in a tree, usually high up in a eucalypt near water. Along lower Murray River also nests in cliff holes.
Eggs (Guide)
2, rarely 3; white; ellipsoidal, 45 - 47 x 32 - 34 mm. Incubation: about 30 days; by both sexes.
Young
Fledge in about 66 - 73 days.
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) and Blue-eyed Cockatoo (Cacatua ophthalmica). Four additional subspecies (aruensis, macrolophus, kwalamkwalam, trobriandi) have been named from New Guinea and related islands, and another (rosinae) from mainland Australia, but none of these now considered valid.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
galerita (Latham, 1790) - Eastern and south-eastern Australia.
fitzroyi (Mathews, 1912) - Northern Australia.
triton Temminck, 1849 - West Papuan Islands, New Guinea and surrounding islands.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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