Gang-gang Cockatoo

The Gang-gang Cockatoo is a small, stocky cockatoo restricted to southeastern Australia. Overall plumage is slate grey, with each feather on the underparts finely scalloped in pale grey or off-white, giving a soft, textured look.

Males are unmistakable, with a bright scarlet-red head and a wispy, curled crest. Females have an all-grey head with a smaller, less conspicuous grey crest, and their underparts are more strongly scalloped with orange-yellow edging compared to males.

Key field marks

• Small, compact cockatoo with a fine, curled crest
• Males: bright red head and crest against grey body
• Females: grey head, grey crest, and orange-yellow scalloped underparts
• Distinctive creaking, growling call unlike other cockatoo screeches

Similar species

No other Australian cockatoo shares the male's scarlet head, making adult males unmistakable. Females could be mistaken for other grey parrots at a glance, but the curled crest and scalloped plumage pattern are distinctive.

Range

Found in southeastern Australia, centered on the Great Dividing Range and adjacent ranges from central New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory south through Victoria. It is the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory.

Habitat

Breeds in tall, wet montane eucalypt forest, often at higher elevations. Outside the breeding season it descends to lower-elevation woodland, farmland, parks and gardens, including in urban Canberra and Melbourne.

Movement

An altitudinal migrant, moving from high-elevation breeding forest to lower, more open country in autumn and winter.

Voice

Gives a distinctive slow, creaking or growling call, often likened to a rusty gate hinge or a cork being twisted in a bottle, quite unlike the sharp screeches of most other cockatoos.

Feeding

Feeds quietly and can often be approached closely while foraging on eucalypt and wattle seeds, and introduced fruits such as hawthorn berries; also eats various native and exotic seeds and nuts in gardens.

Breeding

Nests in hollows high in tall, old eucalypts, typically near water, laying two to three eggs. Populations were significantly affected by the extensive 2019-2020 Australian bushfires, which burned large areas of breeding habitat.