Why do we never see black cockatoos in the States?

Duchessbird

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Hi cockatoo lovers,

I've always wondered why rarely if ever does one see any of the five Australian black cockatoos in the US. Were they just never imported before the WBCA? Or did breeding attempts fail?

Best,
Bailey
 

Scott

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RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
Good question, Bailey! Not sure, might have been import issues, and in any case they are prohibitively costly.
 

bug_n_flock

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B&G Macaw, Galah, 5 cockatiels, 50 billion and a half budgies. We breed and do rescue. Too many to list each individual's name and age etc, but they are each individuals and loved dearly.
We had one at the parrot shop for years. A black palm by the name of Artie. Caught illegally as an adult in the wild and smuggled into the US, but siezed at the border with nearly 200 others if I remember right. He and a female went to seaworld first, you can guess how that turned out. After the female died, he was brought to my boss. We had him for quite a while and WOW what a magnificent animal. Just before the shop closed down a breeder contacted my then ex-boss asking about him. Last I heard he has raised 3 amazing and perfect little chicks.



Edit: to scare off customers who had no business inquiring after him, we said he was for sale at the price point of 18,000$! I don't know if or what she charged the breeder before letting him go, but it sounds like a good placement.




I hope that bodes well for the future. Artie was amazing, but completely a wild animal and we had to remember that at every interaction. I dream of one day having a friendly one....
 

Betrisher

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Most of the black cockatoos live in remote areas (eg. the Palm cockatoo in far northern Queensland, the Glossy Black in wet sclerophyll forests, even the Gang Gang tends to live in out-of-the-way bushland areas). When I was a young birdo, there was an enormous scandal when it was discovered that two of our leading ornithologists, while 'studying' the rare cockatoos (and other species, like the Rufous Owl) had actually been robbing nests for years and selling the eggs overseas.

That incident prompted an instant clamp down on native bird species and the severity of the laws and punishments have only increased over time. Like most species, the black cockies' worst enemy is habitat destruction. They only breed in old-growth eucalypt forest where favourable tree hollows can be found. Logging activities are responsible for so bl**dy much of our loss of species diversity! I could write a book about it!!!

Anyway, I'm aware that Palm Cockatoos have always been a great curiosity and were exported to some degree in the early part of Australia's nationhood. Now, the only way to get them out is to smuggle them and that's, thankfully, not an easy thing to do any more. Although it does still happen. Just a few years ago, someone was caught with over a hundred and fifty native parrots which had been drugged and forced into cardboard tubes for storage in the hold of an aircraft. Thankfully, most of the birds recovered and the crooks got hefty sentences.

I have seen Gang Gangs, Glossy Blacks and White-tailed blacks in the wild in my extended local area and my husband's uncle kept a beautiful pair in his massive aviary until he died (they were bequeathed to a private collector who had an equally brilliant set-up for them). I haven't seen a Red-tailed Black or either of the Western Australian species (Carnaby's and Baudin's), but would love to! There's something about black cockies that pulls on your heart strings. Certainly, the plaintive cries of the White-taileds that visit my garden remind me of lost souls.

My inner biologist insists that animals should live where they evolved. The thought of a tropical cockatoo or macaw living in the northern hemisphere makes me sad. I'm glad the Oz government finally woke up and protected our wildlife. It's too unique to muck around with its safety, y'know?

PS. Palm cockatoos have an *amazing* social structure which depends heavily on its flock mentality. The thought of one being kept in isolation gives me the cold chills. :(
 

Kiwibird

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To my understanding (this applies to many of the “rare” species in the pet trade today), during the timeframe when importation of wild caught parrots was still legal, some species were found to be either more popular or make better pets than others and thus more individuals of those species were imported. To my knowledge, black cockatoos (and major Mitchell’s) simply do not make particularly good pets in most cases. Thus, when it still would have been “easy” to legally bring them over from Australia, importers were more interested in bringing over cockatoo species like umbrellas and galahs which had traits people looked for in pets and were willing to buy. They may also have been rarer overall and/or more difficult to capture and/or less able to withstand the brutal importation process, though that doesn’t seem to have curbed other parrot species from other places being captured and distributed worldwide for the pet trade to the brink of extinction:( Once importation for the pet trade was banned, potential breeding stock for parrots in countries like the US is all down to what parrots were already here since no more can be brought over to breed for pets. More common species will have larger numbers of potential breeders, less common species, less potential breeders. The current captive bred parrot pet trade here is a reflection of the species that won out as the most popular, best selling birds back in the day.

Also want to say, I recall that several white cockatoo species have been at some point or may even still currently be considered agricultural pests in Australia (?). Another factor in why they are more common may be there was some kind of incentive to take them away or less restrictions to capture them for export. Not sure on that.
 
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Laurasea

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Black Palm Cockatoo are endangered, and zoos are having great difficulty getting them to breed in captivaty ... As well as extreme male aggression to their mates, often killing their mates in captivaty.. also their diet is more unique and like their name they need to eat a lot of palm nuts
In captivaty tgey lose their luster and their feathers start to grey out loosing the nice black color. They also seem more sensitive to cooler temps....their call is extremely loud can be heard for miles
 

Betrisher

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Yes, it's true that black cockies don't make particularly good pets (ie. they don't 'tame' as thoroughly as the white species). Having said that, though, I've heard of several RTBs which made brilliant companion animals and were able to learn small tricks. Despite this, though, the black species all do quite well in aviary situations and their collectability value remains high (ie. in proportion to their respective rarities).

And yes, the white species are *dreadful* pests in grain and fruit-growing areas, however farmers are gradually learning other ways of keeping them at bay (eg. using cut-outs of raptors or rubber snakes). While these birds are recognised as 'difficult' or 'invasive' species, they're still classified as wildlife and therefore come under all the same protective laws that other species do. So y'can't export them any more. Neither can you import a foreign-born bird.

In response to your final point, the white cockies and galahs were not pests during the times when the protection laws were enacted. In fact, I doubt they have actually been *declared* 'pests' legally, as that would require their immediate removal from any areas where they had been declared. The cockies' nuisance status has been a fairly recent phenomenon (ie. in my living memory) and grew slowly at first, gradually gaining momentum as the wild flocks grew and shifted in their distributions (reflecting growth patterns of cereal grains).

I'll ask around the ornithologists at our Uni to see if anyone has records on foodstuffs taken by cockatoos. My perception is that originally most species lived on native pasture grasses, tree shoots and fruits, changing gradually during the late twentieth century to a high dependence on cereal grains (notably wheat, oats and barley, but also including oil seeds like rape and canola). Don't quote me on that, though, as I have nothing concrete up with which to back it.

I've written this many times, but I find it fascinating, so will repeat it here. During my childhood, it was *highly* unlikely that one would see a cockatoo east of the Great Dividing range. As I grew into my teens, the occasional galah or SC2 would be seen. By the time I had children, these were not uncommon and Little Corellas were coming as well. Long-billed Corellas (like Hannah's Sunny) came later. Today, we see huge flocks consisting of hundreds of birds near the coast. Once, I even estimated over a thousand mixed SC2s with little and long-billed corellas on the playing fields at Newcastle Uni.

During my honeymoon (road trip north of Newcastle), my new husband and I rounded a corner on a country road and were literally stopped in our tracks by over a thousand galahs eating spilled wheat on the road surface. We simply had to wait until they had finished gorging themselves before we could proceed on our way. The birds were not in the least bit put off by our waving or the sound of the car's horn. We reckoned that was pretty bonza! (Fair dinkum: it was!) When the flock finally rose, the sky turned pink-and-grey for a few minutes as the birds headed westward toward the setting sun. :)

On a final note: much of Australia has been in the grip of drought for the past few years. Native birds are doing it *really* tough, as are our megabats, which are dying in their thousands from heat stroke and malnutrition. People have been helping by putting out water and fruit for the bats, but it will be very interesting to see the net effect of the big dry on bird populations. :(
 

Betrisher

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Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
Black Palm Cockatoo are endangered, and zoos are having great difficulty getting them to breed in captivity ... As well as extreme male aggression to their mates, often killing their mates in captivity.. also their diet is more unique and like their name they need to eat a lot of palm nuts
In captivity they lose their luster and their feathers start to grey out loosing the nice black color. They also seem more sensitive to cooler temps....their call is extremely loud can be heard for miles

One of the reasons for this is the intense flock bond developed by Palm Cockatoos. They can't/won't breed unless the flock has achieved a certain number of pairs distributed over an area. Pair communicate between themselves and between other pairs uses a whole variety of vocalisations as well as a rather unique situation of avian tool-use. The male PCs will use a 'drumstick' (chunk of wood) to beat on the walls of the nest hollow, warning off other males and communicating to the female that he is at home.

Imagine a bird whose reproductive and social life depends on factors like the few mentioned being kept alone or as a lone pair in a small cage! :22_yikes:

PS. Palm Cockies are plentiful enough in their habitat, but it (the habitat: Australian tropical rainforest) is endangered. :(
 

Rozalka

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Palm cockatoos aren't species of Black cockatoos.

Not only in us, here in Europe they also aren't popular. Recently (this or previous year, I don't remember) Red tailed Black 'toos were bred for the first time in my country. Sorry, I can't really tell why they are rare. I wrote this, because maybe they also are so hard to breed?

Wysłane z mojego Redmi 5 przy użyciu Tapatalka
 

AmyMyBlueFront

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Jonesy a Goffins 'Too who had to be rehomed :-(

And a Normal Grey Cockatiel named BB who came home with me on 5/20/2016.
The breeder I got The Beebs from had a Black Palm ( and a Hyasinth sp).
He told me "Blackie" has been with him 30+ years and got him from someone else. Blackie wasn't for sale,but I was told they command a $25k price tag...even more pricey than a Hya! :eek:



Jim
 

Rozalka

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I had read somewhere that palm cockatoos are the most expensive parrot species. Hyasinthes has the 2nd place. I see a lot of people here write about palm cockatoos. I'll write it again - they AREN'T black 'toos. They are black but just in color. The black cockatoos (in classification) are less common. I sometimes travel to see some rare parrot species in capity, I've seen this genus once time (at a zoo in Germany). Palm cockatoos I've seen few times, in three different zoos...
 

chris-md

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Rozalka, we hear you, two different genera. But conversationally the classification doesn’t matter. they are often lumped in together because...well, they are cockatoos, and they are black. That’s all that we really care about.
 

Rozalka

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Rozalka, we hear you, two different genera. But conversationally the classification doesn’t matter. they are often lumped in together because...well, they are cockatoos, and they are black. That’s all that we really care about.
Ok but this species often is named as "palm black cockatoo" - is this so confusing? Somebody who doesn't know the classification can think they are with "other" blacks. In real white species are more close to them than "blacks" Sorry for writing this but some common mistakes sometimes pain me (here maybe not mistake but double meaning: 1. genus 2. black color)
 
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Duchessbird

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Palm cockatoos aren't species of Black cockatoos.

Not only in us, here in Europe they also aren't popular. Recently (this or previous year, I don't remember) Red tailed Black 'toos were bred for the first time in my country. Sorry, I can't really tell why they are rare. I wrote this, because maybe they also are so hard to breed?

Wysłane z mojego Redmi 5 przy użyciu Tapatalka

Exactly, when I referenced "Australia's five black cockatoos" I meant those in the genus Calyptorhynchus, which are 1) red-tailed black, 2) yellow-tailed black, 3) glossy black, 4) Carnaby's black, and 5) Baudin's black. Black Palms are in genus Probosciger (and are the only members of that genus). We've all seen the occasional Black Palm in the states but I have NEVER seen any black cockatoos from the genus Calyptorhynchus in the states.
 
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Betrisher

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All the genera of Australian cockatoos, both 'black' and 'white', pink and grey are cockatoos. That is, they belong to the family Cacatuidae (and, obviously, the superfamily Cacatuoidea).

The 'black' cockatoos (I put that in inverted commas because some are really a dark charcoal in colour) mostly belong to the genus _Calyptorhynchus_ - however, the genera _Probosciger_ and _Callocephalon_ (Palm and Gang Gang cockatoos respectively) are also included in the family and are thus cockatoos.

Likewise, the 'white' (some are flushed with sulphur yellow, salmon or pink) cockatoos belong largely to the genus _Cacatua_, however the genera _Licmetis_ (corellas) and _Lophochroa_ (Major Mitchell's) are also included in the family and are likewise cockatoos.

Other inclusions are _Eolophus_ (galah) and _Nymphicus_ (quarrion or cockatiel).

Back when I was a student of taxonomy, we used external features like the possession of a raisable crest and the distribution of feathers to define which genus or family a bird would be assigned to. Today, DNA is increasingly being used to divide animals along more genetic lines. You cannot *imagine* how painful it was for people of my generation when Galahs and Corellas were given different generic names!!! (I won't go into the massive recent changes in Botanical naming for plants - it's a bl**dy minefield!)

There are many different genera of parrots in Australia, but every Aussie knows a cocky when he sees one! Hope this helps. :)
 

Scott

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RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
Trish, thanks so much for sharing your encyclopedic and beautifully explained knowledge of cockatoos!! :smile015:
 

Betrisher

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Dominic: Galah(RIP: 1981-2018); The Lovies: Four Blue Masked Lovebirds; Barney and Madge (The Beaks): Alexandrines; Miss Rosetta Stone: Little Corella
I'm only a birdo, Scott, just like you and everyone. Taxonomy was my specialty at uni, but I haven't practiced it for many years: I just try to stay as current as I can (not always successfully, sadly). It never ceases to amaze me how people seem to be so fascinated by the big cockies, yet never seem interested in the little jewels of the Australian bush, like the grass parrots or the ringneck parrots or the many lorikeets found here. Even the humble budgie occurs in massive wild flocks, big enough to take your breath away. But people still hanker after the big cockies...

LOL! I s'pose I can't talk. There *is* Rosetta after all. ;)
 

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