![]() ![]() Their breeding season varies according to latitude, taking place from April to July in Queensland, January to May in northern New South Wales, December to February in southern New South Wales, and October to February in Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are monogamous and form pairs. Adults are normally quiet when feeding, while juveniles make frequent noisy begging calls. They may also make a harsh screeching alarm call and a soft, chuckling call when searching for cossid moth larvae. The usual contact call of these birds is a high-pitched wailing call, ‘kee-ow … kee-ow … kee-ow’, made while flying or roosting, and can be heard from afar. If the weather is bad, flocks will return to roost earlier. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos often socialize before dusk, engaging in preening, feeding young, and flying acrobatically. Here they rest for the night and also rest to shelter from the heat of the day. They like to roost in tall eucalypts emergent over other trees in wooded areas. The flight of these cockatoos is fluid and has been described as "lazy", with deep, slow wingbeats. They generally keep to trees, only coming to ground level to inspect fallen pine or Banksia cones or to drink. They are generally wary birds, although they can be less shy in urban and suburban areas. Outside of the breeding season in autumn or winter, they may form flocks of a hundred birds or more, while family interactions between pairs or trios are maintained. They make long journeys by flying at a considerable height while calling to each other, and they are often seen flying high overhead in pairs, or trios comprising a pair and their young, or small groups. ![]() Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are diurnal, raucous, and noisy birds that are often heard before being seen. The Yellow-tailed black cockatoo is distinguished from other dark-plumaged birds by its yellow tail and ear markings, and its contact call. Molting appears to take place in stages over the course of a year and is poorly understood. Records of the timing of the eye ring changing from grey to pink in male birds are sparse but have been recorded anywhere from one to four years of age. The elongated bill has a pointed maxilla (upper beak), suited to digging out grubs from tree branches and trunks. The lower beak blackens later by four years of age. Immature birds have duller plumage overall, a horn-colored bill, and grey eye-rings The upper beak of the immature male darkens to black by two years of age, commencing at the base of the bill and spreading over ten weeks. The female has grey eye-rings, a horn-colored bill, and brighter and more clearly defined yellow cheek patches. The male Yellow-tailed black cockatoo has a black bill, a dull yellow patch behind each eye, and pinkish or reddish eye-rings. The plumage is a more solid brown-black in the eastern subspecies, while the southern race has more pronounced yellow scalloping on the underparts. Both mainland and Tasmanian birds of the xanthanotus race average about 28 cm (11 in) in tail length. Birds of the xanthanotus race on the mainland average heavier than the Tasmanian birds the males on the mainland weigh on average around 630 g and females 637 g (1.404 lb), while those on Tasmania average 583 and 585 g (1.290 lb) respectively. Male funereus birds weigh on average around 731 g (1.612 lb) and females weigh about 800 g (1.8 lb). The tails of birds of subspecies funereus measure around 33 cm (13 in), with an average tail length 5 cm (2.0 in) longer than xanthanotus. ![]() It has a short mobile crest on the top of its head, and the plumage is mostly brownish-black with paler feather margins in the neck, nape, and wings, and pale yellow bands in the tail feathers. The Yellow-tailed black cockatoo is 55–65 cm (22–26 in) in length and 750–900 grams in weight.
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