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Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo

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Habitat: Forest, Woodland, Urban

Habitat

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos inhabit a wide variety of habitats, especially forests and woodlands dominated by eucalypts or casuarinas. Some subspecies prefer specific vegetation assemblages, such as Brown Stringybark forests in south-western Victoria and south-eastern SA, or Marri, Jarrah and Karri forests in south-western Australia, but others are less restricted in the habitats they occupy. They also occur in some regional towns and cities.

Behaviour

The Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is widely considered to be dispersive, with seasonal movements related to food availability in different areas. It is an active, noisy and conspicuous species that is mainly arboreal. They may be less wary while feeding than at other times, and generally do not allow a close approach by an observer, readily taking flight and screeching loudly.

Feeding

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos mainly eat seeds, which are usually extracted from the hard seed pods of eucalypts, casuarinas and banksias, using its robust bill to tear them open. They sometimes also eat insect larvae, which are revealed by tearing open the branches of trees. In some regions, they forage on the ground, eating the seeds of various weeds, and in other places they are quite picky, preferring the seeds of particular species of trees.

Breeding

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos lay one white egg (or sometimes two) in a tree hollow lined with wood dust, woodchips or splinters. Nesting hollows are usually situated in mature or dead eucalypts. Only the female incubates and feeds the young nestlings, but as the chicks grow older, both sexes feed them.