Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo

Scientific Name: Calyptorhynchus funereus

Description: The Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo is the largest local cockatoo and is black all over except for the distinctive yellow band across the tail and the yellow ear patch. Males have dark grey bills and a pinkish-red eye-ring. Females have a light-coloured bill and a dark grey eye-ring.

Before European habitation, these cockatoos ate banksia or sheoak seeds, but the seeds from pine trees are now favoured. To complete its diet, these birds use their massive bills to crush the branches of wattles in search of succulent borer grubs. They were once very rare, on the Bellarine Peninsula, but have been commonly seen since the mid-1990s, moving in small to large, noisy flocks. They feed on seeds, insects, and grubs.

Type: Bird
Where to find: Wet forests and woodlands, preferring eucalypt and pine forests.
Size: 65cm