Palm Cockatoo

The Palm Cockatoo is one of the largest parrots in the world and among the most distinctive cockatoos, instantly recognizable by its all-black plumage, tall wispy crest, and enormous curved bill. Unlike the white and pink cockatoos familiar to many, this species is sooty grey-black all over with a slight scaly sheen to the feathers.

Appearance

• Large, long-tailed cockatoo with a loose, ragged crest that it can raise or flatten
• Bare, unfeathered cheek patches that flush from pale pink to deep red when the bird is excited
• Massive black bill, the largest of any cockatoo, with a narrow lower mandible adapted for extracting nut kernels
• Dark grey legs and feet used for manipulating food and, uniquely, tools

Key field marks

• Entirely dark grey-black plumage with no white, pink, or yellow feathering
• Bright red bare skin patches on the face that change color with mood
• Tall, thin, upright crest feathers unlike the broad rounded crests of other cockatoos
• Oversized bill, disproportionately large even for a cockatoo

Similar species

No other cockatoo shares this combination of all-black plumage and red facial skin. The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo and other black cockatoos of Australia have red or yellow tail panels and smaller bills, and lack the Palm Cockatoo's bare red cheeks and wispy crest.

Range

Found in the rainforests of New Guinea and nearby islands, the Aru Islands, and the tip of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, Australia, where it is the rarest cockatoo on the continent.

Habitat

Inhabits tall tropical rainforest, monsoon forest, and adjacent eucalypt woodland, usually staying close to forest with large hollow-bearing trees needed for nesting. It is largely sedentary, defending a home range year-round rather than migrating.

Behavior

Palm Cockatoos are famous for a remarkable display: males fashion a stick or seed pod into a drumstick-like tool and rhythmically beat it against a hollow tree trunk near the nest hollow, creating a percussive display believed to be one of the few examples of tool-made 'music' in the animal kingdom.

Voice

Calls include a loud, whistled 'chee-oo' or 'wee-loo' and a range of harsh, human-like whistles that carry through dense forest.

Feeding

Uses its powerful bill to crack extremely hard-shelled nuts such as canarium almonds and pandanus fruit, often holding food in one foot while feeding.

Nesting and breeding

Breeding is slow: pairs use large tree hollows, and a single egg is laid roughly every two years, with a long incubation and fledging period, making population recovery very slow after disturbance.