Identification: This cockatoo has white plumage with washes of yellow at the undersides of flight and tail feathers. A distinctive narrow, forward- curving crest is found on the crown.

Call/Song:  A harsh, racous screech is used as a contact call in flight. Their alarm call is a succession of abrupt guttural screeches.

Widely distributed throughout northern, eastern and south-eastern mainland as well as Tasmania and other offshore islands.

Habitat:Common in most types of timbered country.

Feeding:  Eat the seeds of grasses and herbaceous plants, grain, bulbous roots, berries, nuts and leaf buds.

Breeding/Nesting: Breeds from August to January in the south, May to September in the north. The Sulphur crested cockatoo makes its nest in a hollow limb or hole in tree.

Movement:  From dawn until mid-morning they usually feed on seeds on the ground before moving up into the trees during the hottest part of the day. Here they idly strip off bark and leaves before feeding again in the late afternoon. They fly back to the roosting trees at night. 

Other Common Names: Greater sulphur crested cockatoo, white cockatoo.

Status:

Distribution:Widely distributed throughout Lamington National Park. Usually present in the West Canungra Creek Gorge and from the various lookouts along Snake Ridge running above the creek in the west. This cockatoo is often present in the Kerry Valley

Abundance:Reasonably common all year round.

Queensland Museum (1995) Wildlife of Greater Brisbane, Queensland Museum, Brisbane.

Reader's Digest Services (1979) Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds, Surry Hills, NSW.