Yellow-crested cockatoo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Yellow-crested cockatoo |
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| Wing-clipped cockatoo at Guangzhou Zoo | |
| Conservation status | |
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| Genus: |
Cacatua
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| Species: |
sulphurea
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| Native (blue) and introduced (red) ranges of C. sulphurea | |
The yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) is a beautiful bird. It is also called the lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo. This medium-sized cockatoo is about 34 centimeters (13 inches) long. It has bright white feathers. Its skin around the eyes is bluish-white. It has grey feet and a black beak. The most striking feature is its yellow or orange crest. This crest can be moved up and down. Male and female cockatoos look very similar.
These cockatoos live in East Timor and Indonesia. You can find them in wooded areas and farms. They live on islands like Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundas. It is easy to mix them up with the sulphur-crested cockatoo. That bird is bigger and more common. Sulphur-crested cockatoos usually do not have pale yellow cheeks. The yellow-crested cockatoo's crest is also a brighter, more orange color. The citron-crested cockatoo looks similar too. But its crest is orange. It only lives on the island of Sumba.
Yellow-crested cockatoos mostly eat seeds. They also enjoy buds, fruits, nuts, and different herbaceous plants.
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About the Yellow-Crested Cockatoo
In the 1700s, these cockatoos were brought to Europe as pets. Many naturalists studied and wrote about them. In 1738, an English naturalist named Eleazar Albin described the "Cockatoo or White crested parrot." He saw one at a tavern in London. Later, in 1764, George Edwards wrote about the "Lesser white cockatoo with a yellow crest." He saw it as a pet in a home in Essex.
In 1788, a German naturalist, Johann Friedrich Gmelin, officially named the yellow-crested cockatoo. He called it Psittacus sulphureus. The first place this bird was found was the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Today, the yellow-crested cockatoo is one of 11 species in the Cacatua group. This group was named in 1817.
There are five different types, or subspecies, of the yellow-crested cockatoo. They are recognized by the International Ornithological Congress:
- C. s. sulphurea: This is the main type. It lives on Sulawesi and nearby islands.
- C. s. abbotti: This type is called Abbott's yellow-crested cockatoo. It lives on the Masalembu Islands.
- C. s. djampeana: This type lives on Tanahjampea and Tukangbesi Islands.
- C. s. occidentalis: This type lives in the western and central Lesser Sundas. This includes islands like Lombok, Sumbawa, and Flores.
- C. s. parvula: This type is the Timor yellow-crested cockatoo. It lives in the central Lesser Sundas, including Timor.
Until 2023, the citron-crested cockatoo (Cacatua citrinocristata) was thought to be a type of yellow-crested cockatoo. But now it is considered its own species.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
The yellow-crested cockatoo builds its nest inside tree holes. The female usually lays two white eggs. Both parents take turns sitting on the eggs. They incubate the eggs for about 28 days. The baby chicks stay in the nest for about 75 days after they hatch.
Protecting the Yellow-Crested Cockatoo
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The yellow-crested cockatoo is in great danger. Its numbers have dropped a lot. This is mainly because people illegally catch them to sell as pets. Between 1980 and 1992, over 100,000 of these birds were sold from Indonesia.
Now, it is much harder to trade them. The current number of these birds is less than 2,500. Their population is still getting smaller. The C. s. abbotti type is in even more trouble. Only about 10 of these birds were left on Masakambing Island in 2008. This small island is only about 5 square kilometers (1.9 square miles). Their decline is due to trapping and trees being cut down.
Several national parks are helping to protect these birds. These parks keep their homes safe. Some of these parks include:
- Rawa Aopa Watumohai National Park on Sulawesi
- Komodo National Park on Komodo Island
- Manupeu Tanah Daru National Park and Laiwangi Wanggameti National Park on Sumba
- Nino Konis Santana National Park in East Timor
Cockatoos in Hong Kong
There is a group of yellow-crested cockatoos living in Hong Kong. These birds were not originally from there. They are an introduced population. Hong Kong has about 200 of these birds. This is about 10% of all the wild yellow-crested cockatoos in the world! You can often see them in parks and woods in Hong Kong.
This large group started from pet birds that escaped over many years. There is a popular story that a governor released his pet birds during World War II. But historians and scientists have not found proof for this story. They believe the Hong Kong cockatoos are mostly escaped pets. The first record of an escaped pet yellow-crested cockatoo in Hong Kong was in 1959.
