In our local area we are fortunate to have a number of species of black cockatoos present. Do you know how many there are? Before I answer that let’s first dive into a bit of background about Australia’s black cockatoos – and then see if you guessed how many species call our area home.
The order Psittaciformes (or parrots) evolved relatively recently around 60 million years ago, and is divided into three groups – Strigopoidea (the New Zealand parrots), Cacatuoidea (cockatoos) and Psittacoidea (true parrots).
The exact relationship between all the cockatoos is still being worked out, with new and more thorough genetic work often overturning long established beliefs about which species evolved earliest. What is clear though is a general division between the black cockatoos on one side, and the white and multicoloured cockatoos (like galahs) on the other side. All evidence points to the first cockatoos evolving in Australia around 28 million years ago, and branching out from here to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia and the Philippines.
So let’s look at the black cockatoos. On one side we have the Red-tailed black cockatoo and the Glossy black cockatoo. Glossy black cockatoos are listed as vulnerable and are suffering due to land clearing and the highly specialised nature of their diet and breeding. They exist almost entirely on the seeds found in she-oak cones, and usually only have one chick every two years. Glossy blacks are often mistaken for Red-tailed black cockatoos – which are larger and more widespread in Australia. Red-tailed blacks have five sub-species and are sometimes known for following rain as they move around. These two are members of the Calyptorhynchus genus.
Then we have the Zanda genus which comprises the two white-tailed species in Western Australia, and the Yellow-tailed black cockatoo from eastern Australia. The two white tailed species, Baudin’s and Carnaby’s cockatoo, are both threatened and are again suffering due to clearing and habitat loss, and competition from birds introduced into Western Australia. Like a lot of Western Australian birds, these two have close relatives in the east but have been isolated as the rainforests receded around Australia and the deserts and dry woodlands developed as Australia moved further north. This allowed these populations to evolve in their own way, by virtue of their isolated gene pool. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are a familiar site along the range north of Toowoomba throughout the high country area. These birds are in their breeding season right now, and those that bred last year are busily trying to move on last year’s chick – which can make for some very amusing interactions as they ignore its incessant calling to be fed.
Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are our lengthiest cockatoo, but not the heaviest – that honour goes to the Palm cockatoo of northern Queensland. Palm cockatoos are endangered in Queensland and the males are famous for drumming with sticks and seed pods on hollow trees to impress the ladies. Their position in the evolutionary history of cockatoos still hasn’t been settled yet.
So which ones do we have here? Which ones have you seen? (And yes I have given one hint!) If you said Yellow-tailed black cockatoo, Red-tailed black cockatoo and Glossy black cockatoo you’d be right. But is there more? Yes, and it’s kind of a trick question actually.
Cockatiels, or Quarrions as they are known locally, are also black cockatoos! Genetic tests have shown they are most closely related to black cockatoos, which is easy to see when you consider the cheek patches and tail panels, without going into the genetics and other anotomical features.
So next time you see one of our four black cockatoo species consider not only are you privileged to see these beautiful birds that are found in no other country on Earth, but you’re witnessing a living example of how life has adapted to our beautiful and always changing Australian continent.
This article first appeared in the June 2025 edition of the Crows Post