The Triton cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita triton'') is one of the four subspecies of the

sulphur-crested cockatoo The sulphur-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita'') is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and some of the islands of Indonesia. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being ...

. The cockatoo was first described by Dutch

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Coenraad Jacob Temminck Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dut ...

, in 1849. There is no documentation as to why Temminck selected this name however it is suggested that it was named after the Dutch

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

, ''Triton'', which operated off the

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdo ...

coastline, in 19th century. It is considered a pest in its natural habitat.

Description

It is white, with a large yellow

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

that it can raise. It is long, weighing and can live up to 40 years. This subspecies differs from the Australian

greater sulphur-crested cockatoo The greater sulphur-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita galerita'') is the nominate subspecies of the sulphur-crested cockatoo. It is native to eastern Australia from Cape York to Tasmania, and has been introduced to places like Indonesia, an ...

in that it is smaller, with broader crest feathers and has a pale blue periophthalmic ring instead of white. Its head and bill appear proportionally larger to its body when compared with the greater sulphur-crested. Although the Triton cockatoo is a larger and heavier bird than the

Eleonora cockatoo The Eleonora cockatoo, ''Cacatua galerita eleonora'', also known as medium sulphur-crested cockatoo, is a subspecies of the sulphur-crested cockatoo. It is native to the Aru Islands in the province of Maluku in eastern Indonesia, but has also b ...

, in practice, it may be difficult to visually differentiate between the two subspecies.

Distribution

It can be found across most of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and the surrounding islands, including the Western Islands, the

D'Entrecasteaux Islands D'Entrecasteaux Islands () are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of , has a total land area of approximately and is separated from the Papua New G ...

and the

Louisiade Archipelago The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread ...

. It can also be found throughout most of the islands in the western area of the

Solomon Sea The Solomon Sea is a sea located within the Pacific Ocean. It lies between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Many major battles were fought there during World War II. Extent The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of ...

, with the exception of

Aru Islands The Aru Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a regency of Maluku Province, with a land area of . At the 2011 Census the Regency had a po ...

Habitat

The Triton Cockatoo is almost exclusively arboreal and are rarely found in groups numbering more than half a dozen individuals. They prefer the thick jungle forest found on hillsides and whilst most are commonly found in lower and moderate elevations they have been found in forests above sea level.

Diet

They mainly eat seeds, fruits and occasionally insects.

Breeding

They are aggressive, solitary and territorial during breeding season, which is from May to September. It nests in tree cavities, like most

cockatoos A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the ord ...

. They fill the nest with leaves and vines as padding and lay 2-3 eggs, which both parents incubate for approximately 26 days.

Aviculture

Alongside the Eleonora cockatoo, avicultural populations of Triton cockatoo are well-established in Europe and the United States and young, hand-reared individuals are available for purchase.

In fiction

A Triton cockatoo, named Fred features prominently in the 1970s US TV series, ''

Baretta ''Baretta'' is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a revised and milder version of a 1973–1974 ABC series, '' Toma'', starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police ...

'' as the pet of the titular character. In reality, two cockatoos named Lalah and Weird Harold were used during production.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2671517 Cacatua Parrots of Asia Birds described in 1849