Matomo-Image-Tracker Psittaciformes - Calyptorhynchus - Long Billed Black Cockatoo

Psittaciformes

Baudin's Black Cockatoo - Long Billed Black Cockatoo - Zanda Baudinii


The Long Billed Black Cockatoo, also known as Baudin's cockatoo, is a species of genus Zanda found in southwest Australia. The epithet commemorates the French explorer Nicolas Baudin. It has a short crest on the top of its head, and the plumage is mostly grayish black. It has prominent white cheek patches and a white tail band. The body feathers are edged with white giving a scalloped appearance. Adult males have a dark grey beak and pink eye-rings. Adult females have a bone colored beak, grey eye-rings and ear patches that are paler than those of the males.

Description

The Long Billed Black Cockatoo is about 56 cm (22 in) long. It is mostly dark-grey with narrow vague light-grey scalloping, which is produced by narrow pale-grey margins at the tip of dark-grey feathers. It has a crest of short feathers on its head, and it has whitish patches of feathers that cover its ears. Its lateral tail feathers are white with black tips, and the central tail feathers are all black. The irises are dark brown and the legs are brown-grey. Its beak is longer and narrower than that of the closely related and similar Carnaby's black cockatoo.

The adult male has a dark grey beak and pink eye-rings. The adult female has a bone colored beak, grey eye-rings, and its ear patches are paler than that of the male. Juveniles have a bone colored beak, grey eye-rings, and have less white in the tail feathers.

The long billed black cockatoo is one of two species of white-tailed black cockatoo endemic to south-western Australia which were only separated taxonomically in 1948. It is closely associated with moist, heavily forested areas dominated by marri (red gum tree) and is threatened by habitat destruction.

Conservation

The IUCN red list notes the species as Zanda baudinii, recognising an elevation of the subgenus in its conservation assessment. The range of threats to the declining population, estimated to be between ten and fifteen thousand remaining individuals, is listed with the conservation status of endangered by extinction.

The bird is part of an annual census, the Great Cocky count, that has been held every year since 2009 to track the population change of long billed black cockatoo and other black cockatoos.

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