This is a large, black cockatoo with a piercing call and spectacular displays. Display may occur in groups with elaborate calling and bowing, or by a male at or near the nesting tree, probably territorial. With crest fully raised, wings outstretched and cheeks brightly coloured, the bird will slowly twirl, striking the dead trunk with a branch, stone or large seed held in the foot, while constantly calling.

Pairs are thought to occupy a permanent display territory all year, though often feed away from them, sometimes in flocks. Nests are in large hollow trees, primarily large eucalypts in woodland, and pairs are also thought to claim numerous other hollow trees as display sites. Food is taken both from the canopy and on the ground, and appears to consist largely of the kernels of fruit and nuts.

Distribution of Palm Cockatoos

Palm Cockatoo (author unknown)

There are four subspecies of Palm Cockatoo, three confined to New Guinea and one to the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland (separated on the basis of differences in courtship behaviour. The Australian subspecies (P. a. macgillivrayi) occupies the fringe zone between rainforest and open tropical woodland dominated by paperbarks, eucalypts and acacias, with the number of breeding birds estimated at 3,000.

Links

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

Australian Wildlife Conservancy

New Guinea Palm Cockatoo Research