Palm Cockatoo

Appearance

The Palm Cockatoo is 55 to 60 cm in length and weighs 910–1,200 g. It may be the largest cockatoo species and largest parrot in Australia, although large races of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and Sulphur-crested Cockatoos broadly overlap in size. It is a distinctive bird with a large crest and has one of the largest bills of any parrots. This powerful bill enables Palm Cockatoos not only to eat very hard nuts and seeds, but it also enables males to break off thick sticks from live trees to use for a drumming display. The bill is unusual as the lower and upper mandibles do not meet for much of its length, allowing the tongue to hold a nut against the top mandible while the lower mandible works to open it. The Palm Cockatoo also has a distinctive red cheek patch that changes colour when the bird is alarmed or excited.

Distribution

The Palm Cockatoo is distributed in rainforests and woodlands of New Guinea island in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and far northern Queensland, Australia. It can still be found wild and free on the branches of the trees along the road in Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia.

Status

The Palm Cockatoo is still relatively common in Cape York, but is threatened there by habitat destruction, particularly due to bauxite mining around Weipa and altered fire regimes elsewhere. Palm Cockatoos are hunted in New Guinea. This species is in high demand for the pet trade due to its unusual appearance. The Palm Cockatoo is currently evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Habitat

The Palm Cockatoo is distributed in rainforests and woodlands of New Guinea island in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and far northern Queensland, Australia. It can still be found wild and free on the branches of the trees along the road in Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia.

Reproduction

Palm Cockatoos only lay one egg every second year and have one of the lowest breeding success rates reported for any species of parrot. Off-setting this is their very long life-span. A male commenced breeding at 29 in Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and a female at the London Zoo was 40 when she laid her first egg in 1966. There is anecdotal evidence of a Palm Cockatoo reaching 80 or 90 years of age in an Australian zoo, although the oldest confirmed individual was aged 56 in London Zoo in 2000. Although longevity of captive birds is known, it is still unknown how long palm cockatoos live in the wild. Breeding takes place inside tree hollows that look like standing pipes. Fires play an important role in the destruction and creation of nest hollows. Fires allow the colonisation of microorganisms and termites, which enter the tree and start hollowing out the inside. Cyclones are important in the final stage of nest hollow development.

Food

The Palm Cockatoo is often observed feeding during the early hours of the day on a diet that consists mostly of wild growing Pandanus palm fruit and nuts from the Kanari tree, "Canarium australasicum". They have also been seen eating fruit from Darwin Stringybark "Eucalyptus tetradonta" and Nonda tree as well as seeds from the Cocky apple tree, Beach almond and Black Bean tree. In early captive situations pet owners would either feed dog kibble or generic bird seed mixture while zoos would give them "monkey biscuits." As their nutritional needs became more apparent over the years owners have shifted to specially formulated "manufactured diet" pellets along with a wide variety of treats like peanuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, oranges, apples, grapes, pomegranate, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, broccoli and kale. Many zoos will still give them monkey biscuits to broaden their diet.