Yellow-crested cockatoo

Yellow-crested Cockatoo
Conservation status
Critically endangered
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Family:	Cacatuidae
Subfamily:	Cacatuinae
Genus:	Cacatua
Subgenus:	Cacatua
Species:	C. sulphurea
Binomial name
Cacatua sulphurea Gmelin, 1788

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua sulphurea also known as Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a medium-sized, up to 35cm long, cockatoo with an all-white feathers, bluish bare orbital skin, grey feet, black bill and yellow crest. Both sexes are similar.

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo is distributed to wooded and cultivated areas of Timor-Leste and Indonesia's islands of Bali, Timor, Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands. The diet consists mainly of seeds, buds, fruits, nuts and herbaceous plants. The female lays two to three eggs in a tree hole. Both parents incubate the eggs for about 27 days.

There is a feral population of these birds in Hong Kong. The large group has apparently developed from a number of caged birds that have been released into the Hong Kong skies over many years.

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo is critically endangered. Numbers have declined dramatically due to illegal trapping for the cage-bird trade. The current population is estimated at less than 10,000. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

References

• Template:IUCN2006 Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered

External links

• Cockatoos of Hong Kong
• ARKive - images and movies of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea)
• BirdLife Species Factsheet
• IUCN Red List
• Red Data Book