The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos are regular visitors to the White Cedar in my front yard, pulling off the bark to get to the borers. This morning they stopped off at the neighbour's for an appetiser of pine nuts.
The female has a grey eye-ring and a pale bill, while the male has a red eye-ring and a dark bill. They bite off a pine cone and hold it in one foot to tear it apart to get at the seeds.
Although not particularly common, they are one of the iconic birds of Australia. They fly comparatively low and have large wings which they flap deeply, and very slowly, giving them an immediately recognisable silhouette. When you add their loud, eerie wailing calls that carry for long distances, they are hard to miss.
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