Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo is a large, striking cockatoo occurring in several regional forms across Australia. Males are glossy black overall with broad red panels in the tail. Females and immature birds are duller sooty black or brown, marked with yellow-to-orange spots on the head and body and finely barred orange-yellow tail panels rather than solid red.

Five subspecies are recognized, varying somewhat in size, bill shape, and habitat preference across the bird's extensive range.

Key field marks

• Males: glossy black body with bold, solid red tail panels
• Females: sooty brown-black with yellow-orange spotting on the head and wing coverts, and tail panels barred (not solid) orange-yellow
• Large bill, heavier in some inland subspecies

Similar species

Female Red-tailed Black Cockatoos can be confused with female Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, but lack the solid yellow ear patch, instead showing scattered yellow-orange spotting over the head, and have barred (not solid yellow) tail panels.

Range

Widespread across mainland Australia, with distinct subspecies ranging from the Kimberley and Top End across northern Australia, through central Australia, to southwestern Queensland, and a small, threatened population in southeastern South Australia and southwestern Victoria.

Habitat

Uses eucalypt woodland, mallee shrubland, riverine forest along watercourses, and tropical savanna, depending on the subspecies and region.

Movement

Generally sedentary or locally nomadic, tracking seasonal seed availability; some inland populations range more widely in dry periods.

Voice

Gives loud, grating screeches and a rolling "kree" contact call, often audible as flocks move between feeding and roosting sites.

Feeding

Forages in the canopy of eucalypts, casuarinas, banksias and grevilleas, using its powerful bill to crack open woody seed capsules and extract seeds.

Breeding

Nests in large hollows in mature trees, typically near water, laying one or two eggs though usually only one chick survives. Some subspecies, particularly the southeastern form, face ongoing threats from habitat loss and are conservation priorities.