![]() The ornithologist John Gould knew the bird as the funereal cockatoo. The French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest reclassified it in the new genus Calyptorhynchus in 1826. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo was first described in 1794 by the English naturalist George Shaw as Psittacus funereus, its specific name funereus relating to its dark and sombre plumage, as if dressed for a funeral. Taxonomy and naming A pair flying in Victoria, Australia Like most parrots, it is protected by CITES, an international agreement that makes trade, export, and import of listed wild-caught species illegal. The species is not commonly seen in aviculture, especially outside Australia. In some places yellow-tailed black cockatoos appear to have partially adapted to recent human alteration of landscape and they can often be seen in parts of urban Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. Furthermore, the species may lose most of its mainland range due to climate change. Although they remain common throughout much of their range, fragmentation of habitat and loss of large trees suitable for nesting has caused population decline in Victoria and South Australia. They nest in large hollows high in old growth native trees (~ greater than 200 years old), generally Eucalyptus regnans. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo's diet primarily includes seeds of native and introduced plants while also feeding on wood-boring grubs. The subspecies whiteae is found south of Victoria to the East of South Australia and is smaller in size. Birds of subspecies funereus (Queensland to eastern Victoria) have longer wings and tails and darker plumage overall, while those of xanthanotus (western Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania) have more prominent scalloping. Two subspecies are recognised, although Tasmanian and southern mainland populations of the southern subspecies xanthanotus may be distinct enough from each other to bring the total to three. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is found in temperate forests and forested areas across south and central eastern Queensland to southeastern South Australia, including a very small population persisting in the Eyre Peninsula. ![]() Their loud, wailing calls carry for long distances. In flight, yellow-tailed black cockatoos flap deeply and slowly, with a peculiar heavy fluid motion. The adult male has a black beak and pinkish-red eye-rings, and the female has a bone-coloured beak and grey eye-rings. The body feathers are edged with yellow giving a scalloped appearance. Its plumage is mostly brownish black and it has prominent yellow cheek patches and a yellow tail band. It has a short crest on the top of its head. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo ( Zanda funerea) is a large cockatoo native to the south-east of Australia measuring 55–65 cm (22–26 in) in length.
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