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Yellow-Tailed Black-Cockatoo - Calyptorhynchus lathami

Yellow-Tailed Black-Cockatoo

Calyptorhynchus lathami

Family: Cacatuidae (Cockatoos, 14 species in Australia)
Size: 56-66 cm
Distribution: Within about 150 km of the coast of NSW, VIC, eastern SA and southern QLD, all of TAS
Status: Common
Habitat: Open forests, farms, pines
References: Simpson and Day, Reader's Digest

A common bird in the Blue Mountains, particularly in the upper mountains. It has a yellow patch on the side of its head, and yellow under the tail. The Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo is not generally found in the Blue Mountains and does not have a coloured patch on the side of its head.

It has a screeching call that sounds a lot like an eagle or other bird of prey.

Yellow-Tailed Black-Cockatoo - Calyptorhynchus lathami
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (1828 x 1776)

Yellow-Tailed Black-Cockatoo - Calyptorhynchus lathami
Artwork: John Gould, 'The Birds of Australia', 1848. Original Scanned Image.

Some Birdwatching Resources

Advanced Bird Language, Jon Young. Advanced Bird Language is an 8-CD audio set which teaches you how to interpret bird language, and other aspects of naturalist awareness. Note that these are not recordings of actual bird calls used to learn to identify which bird sounds like which call — rather they are a series of talks where Jon teaches you how to learn, by observing the birds yourself, what the birds are saying by their calls, their body language, and their other behaviours. The teachings are from North America but they apply to any country.

Click here to purchase from Wilderness Awareness School $74.95 USD

Birdsong, Don Stap. Following one of the world's experts on birdsong from the woods of Martha's Vineyard to the tropical forests of Central America, Don Stap brings to life the quest to unravel an ancient mystery: Why do birds sing and what do their songs mean? We quickly discover that one question leads to another. Why does the chestnut-sided warbler sing one song before dawn and another after sunrise? Why does the brown thrasher have a repertoire of two thousand songs when the chipping sparrow has only one? And how is the hermit thrush able to sing a duet with itself, producing two sounds simultaneously to create its beautiful, flutelike melody?