Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo Zanda funerea Scientific name definitions

55–60 cm; 610–900 g. Male  body plumage dusky black with upper body and wing-covert feathers finely edged buff; yellow ear-covert patch; broad yellow band  in tail  spotted dark brown, with central two feathers all black; bill dark gray, feet gray-brown; eye dark brown with pink periophthalmic ring. Female as male, but cheek patch brighter and bigger; bill bone-coloured; periophthalmic skin dark gray. Immature as adult female. Subspecies xanthanota smaller in wing and tail; subspecies whiteae differs from <em>xanthanota</em> essentially only in width of maxilla.

Closely related to Baudin's Black-Cockatoo (Zanda baudinii) and Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo (Zanda latirostris); has been considered conspecific with latter, and occasionally with former. Southern subspecies whiteae and xanthanota considered by some possibly to represent a separate species. Tasmanian subspecies sometimes listed erroneously as xanthanotus or xanthonotus, but original spelling as given below is correct. Three subspecies recognized.

Eastern and southeastern Australia, including Tasmania and islands in the Bass Strait. Found in east-central Queensland south to Victoria and west to the Eyre Peninsula (South Australia), including Kangaroo Island.

Coastal heath, woodland , forest; also pine  plantations along coast and on adjoining Great Dividing Range.

Poorly known or understood; nominate subspecies tends to wander nomadically in parties of 10–20 birds when not breeding. Birds of subspecies <em>xanthanota</em> sometimes congregate in large flocks of up to 100 to feed on exotic pine cones.

Nominate subspecies eats both seeds and insect larvae , the latter extracted in specialized manner from infested Eucalyptus and Acacia saplings, using elongated upper mandible; initially a “chopping board” of bark is stripped to provide platform on which bird stands in order to excavate cossid moth larvae from stems of saplings. Subspecies xanthanota is primarily seed-eater, and large flocks feed on cones of exotic Pinus radiata plantations, tearing the cones apart.

Most common call is a diagnostic overslurred plaintive wail ending in a harsher tone wheEEeargh, given in flight and when perched. While feeding, birds in a group utter several grating and squealing notes. Alarm call a harsh screech. Immatures utter a repeated very grating nasal rrrruh.

Breeds April–July in northern Australia; January–May in northern New South Wales; December–February in southern New South Wales; and October–March in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. Nest is bed of woodchips in large tree-hollow. Two eggs  ; incubation 28–29 days, by female only; chick has long, dense yellow down; usually only one nestling survives; fed by both parents, and leaves the hollow after three months, remaining with parents until at least next breeding season.

Not globally threatened. CITES II. As with most other cockatoos, long-term existence depends on the continued availability of hollow trees for nesting in. No subspecies currently considered to be threatened, and all have adapted to recent developments in their habitat, namely eucalyptus and pine plantations.