A crest like a fan
It raises its yellow crest when excited, alarmed or showing off.
Parrots · For experienced keepers
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Large parrot · from Australia and New Guinea
A large white parrot with a black beak and a tall, curling crest of yellow feathers.
- Size
- About 50cm long
- Lives for
- 40 to 70 years
- Suits
- Specialists only
Flaps after you, crest raised. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the cockatoo
It dances
A cockatoo called Snowball became famous for dancing in time to music, and scientists found he really was keeping the beat.
Seventy years
Cockatoos are among the longest-lived of all birds. One in a zoo lived past eighty.
The loudest of all
Its screech is as loud as a chainsaw.
A lock-picker
In experiments, cockatoos have worked out how to open a series of five different locks.
Too fond of people
It craves company so much that it can become distressed whenever it is left.
The real thing
Photos of the cockatoo
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
It needs a huge cage or aviary, many hours of company every day, things to chew and puzzles to solve.
Before you get one
Cockatoos are loving, loud and very hard to keep happy. Parrot charities are full of them. Admire one, by all means.
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