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Rookery
Gang-gang Cockatoo, a legendary bird in Roost
  • Gang-gang Cockatoo, profile

    Profile

  • Gang-gang Cockatoo, in flight

    In flight

Parrots

Gang-gang Cockatoo

Callocephalon fimbriatum

  • legendary
  • 50 km/h
  • Vulnerable

Males have a red mohawk on a grey body. Creaks like a cork leaving a wine bottle. Listed as Endangered in Australia.

Population
~17,600–35,200 mature individuals (midpoint ~25,300, est. 2020); population trend decreasing (est. 30–49% decline over three generations)
Habitat
Cool, wet montane and foothill eucalypt forests and woodlands with a dense shrubby understory for breeding; moves to drier, more open forests, woodlands, farmland, and urban/suburban gardens at lower elevations in winter
Fun fact
The Gang-gang Cockatoo's distinctive call has been likened to the creak of a rusty gate hinge or a cork being pulled from a wine bottle, and the species is the official faunal emblem of Australia's Australian Capital Territory.
Range
Endemic to southeastern Australia, along the Great Dividing Range from the Hunter Region of central-north New South Wales in a broad arc through the ACT and Victoria to the Otway Ranges; formerly present on King Island (Tasmania, extinct there since the 1960s) and introduced to Kangaroo Island
Diet
Primarily eucalypt seeds, buds, and flowers, plus wattle (Acacia) seeds, berries, nuts, insect larvae, and fruits of introduced plants such as hawthorn and cotoneaster; forages mainly in the tree canopy
Size
0.35 m
Wingspan
0.69 m
Lifespan
20 years

More Parrots

The next 12 of the 28 in the collection, after this one.