Cockatiels are brownish-grey parrots with a wispy, gently-curved crest. Mostly brownish grey with a prominent white patch on the wings, Cockatiels have a distinctive head pattern comprising a yellow face with a bright orange ear patch, and a long grey and pale-yellow head crest. Males are brighter than females, and juveniles look like females.
A ‘queel, queel’, often given in flight, is the main call. Bird call recorded by Marc Anderson.
The Cockatiel is found throughout the arid inland of mainland Australia, occurring in all mainland states and territories, but the species is absent from Tasmania.
Habitat: Woodland, Desert, Grassland
Habitat
The Cockatiel usually inhabits lightly wooded grasslands and open woodlands, as well as eucalypt growing beside rivers (particularly open River Red Gum forests or Black Box or Coolibah woodlands). They also occur on partly cleared farmland.
Behaviour
Cockatiels are gregarious throughout the year, even during breeding season, and may form flocks of hundreds or even thousands of birds, but most flocks usually have up to 30 birds.
Smaller flocks fly in tight, well-coordinated formations, but larger flocks tend to break up into smaller groups. Flocks roost communally at night.
Pairs remain together throughout the year.
Feeding
Cockatiels mainly feed on seeds of grasses, shrubs and trees; they especially favour cereals. They mostly forage on the ground, but occasionally also in shrubs or trees.
Breeding
Cockatiels nest in tree hollows, usually in a eucalypt, though occasionally in bulokes, and seldom in nest boxes. They may also use the old nests of other parrots. More than one pair may nest in the same tree.
They lay up to eight white eggs, though usually three to five, which are incubated by both sexes.
Once hatched, the chicks are fed by both parents, and stay in the nest hollow for about a month.
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Illustration by Angharad Neal-Williams.
