04-22-2025, 05:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-22-2025, 05:07 PM by Man From Ironbark.)
Dave, they are loud because all cockatoos are loud but these are the quietest of their noisy relatives. In contrast to a screech, they have a heart warming laughing sound when at fulll volume and a gentle chuckle when settled or eatiing. They were here at times during the year when their numbers are swelled by youngsters, when I first took up this bit of land. However, when nesting they become solitary pairs with large distances between them and other nesting pairs. In contrast to those of the galah, populations of pink cockatoos have declined rather than increased as a result of man-made changes to the arid interior of Australia. Where galahs readily occupy cleared and part-cleared land, pink cockatoos require extensive woodlands, particularly favouring conifers (Callitris spp.), sheoak (Allocasuarina spp.) and eucalypts. Unlike other cockatoos, pink cockatoo pairs will not nest close to one another, so they cannot tolerate fragmented, partly cleared habitats, and their range is contracting. In 2023, this species was reclassified into the genus Cacatua by the International Ornithological Congress; although it represents a very basally diverging member of the clade, it shares close morphological, behavioural, and vocal features to other members of the genus. Due to this, the former genus Lophochroa may be better considered a monotypic subgenus of Cacatua.
Lorell, they naturally nest so far apart that nesting disputes would have been rare before we cleared the land and reduced their nesting habitat. They need old trees with hollows already established. Basically this has caused the species decline so that there aren't enough of them to fight over the fewer and fewer nesting sites.
The process of aiding trees to produce hollows goes on constantly by ripping sections of bark off so that the end of the branch dies and eventually drops off, leaving a place for a hollow to be started. In doing this the various cockatoos are helping each other make nests for the future. This pruning also helps the trees to last through dry times.
The species is listed as endangered. Their existence is now threatened even more by the rapid expansion of irrigated almond orchards within their range. Though a protected species, this doesn't stop some orchardists from illegally shooting them.
"Pink cockatoo" was its official name (with Major Mitchell as an alternative) in the 1926 official RAOU checklist, and was reinstated as the official name in 2023 following the IOC's taxonomic change.[14] The bird became linked to Major Thomas Mitchell after he described the species in glowing terms in his books on his expeditions, calling it the "cockatoo of the interior". Mitchell himself called it the red-top cockatoo. Before this John Gould had called it Leadbeater's cockatoo (derived from the species name) in 1848,[7] as had Lear in 1832.[8] Gould added that people of the Swan River Colony called it pink cockatoo, and recorded an indigenous name Jak-kul-yak-kul.[15] Other names include desert cockatoo, and chockalott, chock-a-lock, joggle-joggle, and wee juggler, the last anglicised from the Wiradjuri wijugla. Because I live in Wiradjuri country, we have always locally known them as Wee Juggler, in English.
Lorell, they naturally nest so far apart that nesting disputes would have been rare before we cleared the land and reduced their nesting habitat. They need old trees with hollows already established. Basically this has caused the species decline so that there aren't enough of them to fight over the fewer and fewer nesting sites.
The process of aiding trees to produce hollows goes on constantly by ripping sections of bark off so that the end of the branch dies and eventually drops off, leaving a place for a hollow to be started. In doing this the various cockatoos are helping each other make nests for the future. This pruning also helps the trees to last through dry times.
The species is listed as endangered. Their existence is now threatened even more by the rapid expansion of irrigated almond orchards within their range. Though a protected species, this doesn't stop some orchardists from illegally shooting them.
"Pink cockatoo" was its official name (with Major Mitchell as an alternative) in the 1926 official RAOU checklist, and was reinstated as the official name in 2023 following the IOC's taxonomic change.[14] The bird became linked to Major Thomas Mitchell after he described the species in glowing terms in his books on his expeditions, calling it the "cockatoo of the interior". Mitchell himself called it the red-top cockatoo. Before this John Gould had called it Leadbeater's cockatoo (derived from the species name) in 1848,[7] as had Lear in 1832.[8] Gould added that people of the Swan River Colony called it pink cockatoo, and recorded an indigenous name Jak-kul-yak-kul.[15] Other names include desert cockatoo, and chockalott, chock-a-lock, joggle-joggle, and wee juggler, the last anglicised from the Wiradjuri wijugla. Because I live in Wiradjuri country, we have always locally known them as Wee Juggler, in English.
Happiness simply is.
There need be no pursuit.
There need be no pursuit.