The Eleonora cockatoo, ''Cacatua galerita eleonora'', also known as medium sulphur-crested cockatoo, is a 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 ...

. It is native to the

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 ...

in the province of Maluku in eastern

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, but has also been introduced to

Kai Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally specific plants such ...

. It is common in

aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Types There are various reasons that people get involved in aviculture. Some people breed birds to preserve a species. Some people breed parrots ...

. The Eleonora cockatoo was named by

Otto Finsch Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917, Braunschweig) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate ...

. He discovered the subspecies in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

's Artis zoo and named it after Maria Eleonora van der Schroef, the wife of the then director of the zoo. This subspecies was accepted by

Gerlof Mees Gerlof Fokko Mees (16 June 1926 – 31 March 2013) was a Dutch ichthyologist, ornithologist and museum curator. During 1946 to 1949 he took part as a conscript in the military actions to reestablish rule in the Dutch East Indies. During that time h ...

in 1972 and Joseph Forshaw (1989) and recognised by Edward C. Dickinson and James Van Remsen Jr. (2013).

Characteristics

It is the smallest of the four subspecies of ''Cacatua galerita'', at approx. long and weighing between . Apart from the size difference, the Eleonora differs from the greater sulphur crested in that it doesn't have as prominent white eyerings (they often are a pale blue), the

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 ...

of an Eleonora is often less curved and it doesn't have the pointy upper mandible, which is only found in ''Cacatua galerita galerita''. Although a smaller and lighter bird, in practice it may be difficult to differentiate this subspecies from the

Triton cockatoo The Triton cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita triton'') is one of the four subspecies of the sulphur-crested cockatoo. The cockatoo was first described by Dutch zoologist, Coenraad Jacob Temminck, in 1849. There is no documentation as to why Temminc ...

. The Eleonora cockatoo often has pale yellow ear patches, and yellow diffusion throughout the body, especially under the wings and tail. The Eleonora also has a bald patch behind its crest.

Diet and habitat

In the wild, the Eleonora cockatoo is found in open woodlands, forests, and semi-arid forested areas, as well as partially cleared forest areas. It feeds on nuts, berries, flower buds, flowers, seeds and insects.

Reproduction

The breeding season of this cockatoo is mainly from September to January. The birds build their nests in a tree hollow or rock crevice. The female lays 2–3 white oval eggs, which hatch after a period of 30 days. Both parents incubate the eggs and in turn provide for the chicks. The young fledge after about 75 days.

Intelligence and beat perception

One notable Eleonora cockatoo is

Snowball A snowball is a spherical object made from snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands, and pressing the snow together to compact it into a ball. Snowballs are often used in games such as snowball fights. A snowball may also be a large ...

, a bird recently demonstrated to be capable of beat induction – in other words, that the bird is capable of perceiving a musical beat and dancing to it. Like all cockatoos, the Eleonora cockatoo is widely considered to be very intelligent and emotionally complex.

References

External links

ITIS Report Page
Eleonora cockatoo Parrots of Asia Birds of the Aru Islands Eleonora cockatoo {{parrot-stub