Cockatiel

• Its crest is an emotional thermometer: fully raised it means alertness or curiosity, tilted back it means relaxation, and flattened against the skull it means fear or aggression.
• It is a cockatoo, the smallest of them all, although whether it belonged to that family was long debated: genetic analyses place it as the only species in a subfamily of its own.
• It is the males that learn to whistle tunes: in the wild it is they who sing to court, and that capacity for vocal learning carries over into captivity.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Open scrub, savanna woodland and wetland margins of the Australian interior

Birth weight

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Size at birth

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Sexual maturity

15 months

Gestation / incubation

20 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

5 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Nymphicus hollandicus

Best time: All year round in the Australian interior, by day; after rain it forms large flocks that come in to drink at dawn.