Species group · Birds
WAnimals has 4 species of cockatoo, spread across 2 families (Cacatuidae, Psittacidae).
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 4.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 6 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
It learned to open wheelie bins and that technique has spread across dozens of Sydney suburbs by imitation between individuals, with local variations in style: it is one of the best-documented cases of animal culture in a city.
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It can live beyond sixty and there are captive birds that have passed eighty: the cockatoo Cocky Bennett, in Australia, died at more than a hundred according to the records.
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In some populations it has been seen dancing spontaneously to music, synchronising its movements with the beat, an ability once thought almost unique to human beings.
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It drums on trunks with a stick it makes itself: one of the few animals that plays a musical instrument.
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It makes drumsticks: the male cuts a branch, trims it to the length he prefers and beats a hollow trunk with it, producing a regular, personal rhythm that differs from one individual to another. It is the only known case of musical instrument making outside our own species.
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Its bare cheek reddens when the bird is excited and pales when it is calm, a literal blush that works as a social signal.
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It forms noisy flocks of hundreds and can live over 70 years.
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Its name, galah, is used in Australian slang to mean a fool, after its apparently absurd acrobatic games: they hang upside down from wires, spin round and drop into dives for no apparent reason.
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