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Cockatoo Origins & Species

Cockatoos originate from what is known as the Australasia/Oceana region of the world. Australia, many of the Indonesian Islands, The Solomon Islands, The Philippines, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea. There are 21 species of cockatoo, which includes the cockatiel.

Above is a group of sulphur crested (galerita) cockatoos. These are the largest of the sulphur crested cockatoos and much bigger than the Yellow Crested. Unfortunately in captivity over the decades many of the sulphur crested cockatoos have been hybridised, meaning the large sulphur crested have been bred with the smaller sulphur crested such as the Eleonoras or Triton and I believe there are not many true Galerita in the UK. Often birds are advertised as one species or another but the photographs show differently.

This is a list of the cockatoo species:

Palm Cockatoo Probosciger aterrimus (LC)

Long-billed Black-cockatoo Zanda baudinii (EN)

Short-billed Black-cockatoo Zanda latirostris (EN)

Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo Zanda funerea (LC)

Red-tailed Black-cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii (LC)

Glossy Black-cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami (LC)

Gang-gang Cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum (LC)

Galah Eolophus roseicapilla (LC)

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo Cacatua leadbeateri (LC)

Yellow-crested Cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea (CR)

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita (LC)

Salmon-crested Cockatoo Cacatua moluccensis (VU)

White Cockatoo Cacatua alba (EN)

Philippine Cockatoo Cacatua haematuropygia (CR)

Tanimbar Corella Cacatua goffiniana (NT)

Little Corella Cacatua sanguinea (LC)

Western Corella Cacatua pastinator (LC)

Long-billed Corella Cacatua tenuirostris (LC)

Solomons Corella Cacatua ducorpsii (LC)

Cockatiel Nymphicus hollandicus (LC)

Blue-eyed Cockatoo Cacatua ophthalmica (VU)

We are adding individual pages for each species of cockatoo. Here are our current pages, please click on the boxes for further information.

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