GANG-GANG COCKATOO

The Gang-gang Cockatoo ranges in length from 32 to 37 cm with a wingspan of 62 to 76 cm.

Males are slate grey with a scarlet head and a wispy scarlet crest.

Females have a grey head and crest, and the feathers on the underparts are edged with salmon pink.

The Gang-gang Cockatoo is distributed from southern Victoria through south and central-eastern New South Wales.

Canberra is the only city in Australia where these cockatoos live.

They feed mainly on seeds of native and introduced trees and shrubs. They will also eat berries, fruits, nuts and insects and their larvae. During winter small flocks are common in gardens around the city. In summer most of the flocks return to the mountain forests to breed in tree hollows.

Their call is a distinctive sound resembling the sound of a squeaking gate.

The Gang-gang Cockatoo requires hollows in trunks or large limbs of large trees in which to breed. Breeding usually occurs between October and January. They are likely to breed from around four years of age.

On 27 February 1997 the Gang-gang Cockatoo was adopted as the faunal emblem for the Australian Capital Territory.