GANG GANG COCKATOO,

gang gang cockatoo

Species Profile

Genus:

Callocephalon

Species:

fimbriatum

Size: Adult Weight:

33-35cm (12.8-13.6 in) 240-330g (8.4-11.5 oz)

Races including nominate:

one

Colourization Adult: Male-in general dark grey, the feathers scalloped pale grey/white; bright orange/red crest and head; secondary coverts suffused dull green; dark grey tail. Bill horn in colour. Eye dark brown. Female-dark grey head and crest; upperparts strongly barred with pale yellow, underparts heavily barred orange to green/yellow; undertail barred grey/white.

Colourization Juvenile: As in female but with more red in crest (male) and dark grey crest (female); crest shorter with less filaments; more evident barring on tail.

Call: Described as croaking screech. Soft growling while feeding.

Care in Captivity

Pet Suitability:

Tends to feather pluck, avid chewers, playful.

Feeding: 

 Gang-gang Cockatoos feed mainly on seeds of native and introduced trees and shrubs, with a preference for eucalypts, wattles and introduced hawthorns. They will also eat berries, fruits, nuts and insects and their larvae. They are mainly arboreal (found in trees), coming to the ground only to drink and to forage among fallen fruits or pine cones. Gang-gangs feed in flocks of up to 60 birds outside the breeding season; they feed in pairs or small family groups during the breeding season.

Breeding: 

 Gang-gang Cockatoos form close, monogamous pairs. The female chooses a nest hollow in a suitable tree and both sexes prepare the nest for egg-laying, lining it with wood-chips and dust by chewing at the sides of the hollow. Both sexes incubate the eggs and care for the young. Parents feed their young for a further four to six weeks after fledging and family groups will be seen feeding together during the breeding season. In some cases, 'crèches' will be formed - where several pairs have nested close together, their young will roost together in the same tree while their parents are foraging.

Distribution: 

 

Gang-gang Cockatoos are endemic to south-eastern Australia. They are widespread in eastern New South Wales from the central slopes and tablelands to the south coast, down through Victoria's north-eastern regions to Seymour, with some records in east Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula and south-western Gippsland. A disjunct (cut off) population is found in the western half of Victoria from the Otway region to the South Australian border. Formerly found on King Island until the mid-1960s but now considered extinct on the island. Has also been introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

Habitat: 

 

During summer, the Gang-gang Cockatoo is found in tall mountain forests and woodlands, with dense shrubby understoreys. In winter, Gang-gangs will move to lower altitudes into drier, more open forests and woodlands. At this time, they may be seen by roadsides and in parks and gardens of urban areas. They require tall trees for nest hollows.

Captive Status:

Uncommon

Longevity:

60 or more years.

Housing:

Walk-in aviary, minimum length 4.5m (14.7 ft).

Diet:

Mix of small seeds: limited sunflower; walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts; fresh corn, fruit especially apple, hawthorn, cotoneaster and pyracantha berries; complete kibble.

Enrichment:

Avid chewers so provide bird safe wood (fir), wood toys, vegetable tanned leather, pine cones; bathing.

Nest Box Size:

1m (3.3 ft) long nesting log.

Clutch Size:

2 to 3

Incubation Time:

28-30 days, as low as 25 days recorded.

Fledging Age:

8 weeks

Hatch Weight:

Not available

Peak Weight:

Not available

Weaning Weight:

Not available

Link to Specialist Club:

Cockatoo Society 26961 N. Broadway, Escondido, CA 92026.

Status in the Wild

World Population:

Over 20,000

Range: Found in Australia from SE in E New South Wales through S Victoria to SE South Australia; introduced to Kangaroo Island.

Habitat:

Occurs in tall open forest in highlands and foothills; in winter to open woodland, riverine woodland, scrub, farmland and suburban areas. Up to 2000m (6560 ft).

Threat Summary:

Habitat loss, increased susceptibility to psittacine cirovirus disease (PCD) virus.

IUCN Rating:

Least concern (Red list 2006), listed as vulnerable with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Threatened Species Conservation Act (2005).

Wild Diet:

Eucalypt seed pods, green acacia, Pyracantha seeds, berries, nuts, fruits and insect larvae.

CITES Rating:

Appendix II

Ecology:

Nomadic; mostly found up in trees, only coming to ground level to drink; found in pairs or small family groups during breeding season; in winter larger groups up to 60.

Clutch and Egg Size:

2 to 3, rounded oval eggs, 36.0 x 27.5mm (1.4 x 1.1 in)

Breeding Season:

October-January

The Gang-gang Cockatoo, Callocephalon fimbriatum, is found in the cooler and wetter forests and woodlands of Australia, particularly alpine bushland.

Mostly mid grey in colour with some lighter scalloping (more pronounced and buffish in females) the male has a red head and crest, while the female has a small fluffy grey crest. It ranges throughout south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. The Gang-gang Cockatoo is the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory. It is easily identified by its distinctive call, which is described as resembling a creaky gate, or the sound of a cork being pulled from a wine bottle.

The name Gang-gang comes from a New South Wales Aboriginal language, either Ngunnawal or Wiradjuri. It is possible both language groups called it that.

Unlike most other cockatoos, Gang-gangs nest in young, solid trees, the females using their strong bills to excavate nesting cavities. Lots of older, hollow trees and loss of feeding habitat across south-eastern Australia through land clearing has led to a significant reduction in the numbers of this cockatoo in recent years.

This species was most often allied with the white cockatoos of the genus Cacatua. This has always been controversial due to the unusual appearance and coloration of the bird, especially its sexual dichromatism. New research has finally resolved the matter, with the Gang-gang Cockatoo being recognized as a distinctive early offshoot of the calyptorhynchine (dark) cockatoos (Brown & Toft, 1999). Considering the robust phylogeny of the cockatoos now established, a comparison of characters gained and lost during the evolution of cockatoos suggests that the Gang-gang Cockatoo - while of course much changed and adapted during the maybe 20 million years since its last common ancestor with any other living species lived - is probably still very similar in overall appearance to how the earliest cockatoos would have looked, and certainly the most primitive-looking of the species alive today.