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Zanda funerara. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is now generally placed in the genus Zanda, though older field guides may list it as Calyptorhynchus funereus. The former genus name Calyptorhynchus means “covered bill”, while funereus refers to the bird’s dark, funeral-like plumage.

Why I Love Seeing These Birds

These birds have played a significant role in my growing interest in the birds of the Blue Mountains. One January day, there was a cracker of a thunderstorm, alarming in its intensity. After the thunder passed and the rain eased, a shifting wall of sound rose nearby. Outside, more than a dozen yellow-tailed black cockatoos were perched in various poses in a nearby gum tree. I marvelled at them until they were dry enough to be on their way.

What They Look Like and Where They Live

Australia is home to several species of black cockatoos. The yellow-tailed black cockatoo is a large, slender bird with striking black plumage. Its tail feathers display pale yellow panels, and it has yellow cheek patches. Male cockatoos have a pink eye ring and a darker bill, while females and juveniles have a dark grey orbital ring and a bone-coloured bill. Both sexes share a vibrant yellow cheek patch, though it is more pronounced in females. The colour and scalloping of the yellow tail feathers are also more noticeable in females.

These impressive birds have a wingspan of up to 1.2 metres and weigh between 620 and 900 grams. They are among Australia’s largest cockatoos and can be found from south-east Queensland along the eastern states through to parts of South Australia and Tasmania. In parts of the southern range, a slightly smaller subspecies is recognised.

Yellow-tailed black cockatoos inhabit eucalyptus forests and subalpine regions, primarily in forested areas. In the Blue Mountains, they are breeding residents, drawn to sclerophyll forests, heathland and the abundance of exotic pines. Their diet consists mainly of seeds from eucalypts, banksias and hakeas, as well as plantation pines.

What Makes Them So Memorable

These birds use their long bills to dig out large moth and beetle larvae from wood, as sulphur-crested cockatoos do. This is called ‘extractive foraging’ and is regarded as a complex cognitive task in primates (Gisela Kaplan, Bird Minds).

They have adapted to eating seeds from pine cones, and some pine plantations can support flocks of up to 1,500 birds, as noted by Tim Low (Where Song Began):

Whenever I see black-cockatoos floating over fields I can usually spy pines nearby. These birds float as much as fly, remaining aloft with little effort, as if they were big black butterflies.

Calls, Nests and Breeding

One of the most distinctive features of the yellow-tailed black cockatoo is its call. It is often described as mournful, like the dirge of a rusty gate, and is frequently heard before the birds are seen. They call often in flight — a drawn-out “wee-law” — and again when alighting.

Their flight pattern and silhouette are distinctive. They typically move in small flocks of up to 20 birds, and their wingbeats are slow and almost leisurely, despite the amount of ground they can cover.

Breeding frequently takes place in huge hollows in eucalypts, preferably deep in the forest and away from humans. The nest is made on decayed debris, usually high in a large tree hollow. Females lay one or two eggs, though often only one offspring survives. Juveniles leave the hollow after about three months and stay with their parents for several more months. These young cockatoos can keep up a persistent wheezing for hours when camped in a tree.

Final Thoughts

For me, yellow-tailed black cockatoos still carry the feeling of that first storm-cleared afternoon: dark shapes drifting through the trees, slow wingbeats overhead, and those long contact calls filling the air. They are easy to identify, but they never feel ordinary. Whenever I hear them approaching, I still stop to look up.

Have you seen or heard yellow-tailed black cockatoos where you live?

Photo: Yellow-tailed black cockatoos in flight