The Long-billed Corella, Cacatua tenuirostris, is a cockatoo

Cockatoo

A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...

 native to Australia, which is similar in appearance to the Little Corella

Little Corella

The Little Corella, Cacatua sanguinea, also known as the Bare-eyed Cockatoo, is a white cockatoo native to Australia and southern New Guinea....

 and Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua galerita, is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia and New Guinea. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being considered pests...

. This species is mostly white, with a reddish-pink face and forehead, and has a long pale beak, which is used to dig for roots and seeds. It has reddish-pink feathers on the breast and belly.

Taxonomy

The Long-billed Corella is a monotypic species. It was first described by German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl

Heinrich Kuhl

Heinrich Kuhl was a German naturalist and zoologist.Kuhl was born in Hanau. He became assistant to Coenraad Jacob Temminck at the Leiden museum. In 1817 he published a monograph on bats and in 1819 he published Conspectus psittacorum...

 in 1820. It is one of several related species of Cockatoo called Corellas and classified in the subgenus Licmetis

Licmetis

Licmetis is a subgenus of the white cockatoos . They are collectively known as corellas in Australia. Three of the six species are primarily - or only - found in Australia, while the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Solomons each have an endemic species...

within the genus Cacatua

Cacatua

Cacatua is a genus of cockatoos found from the Philippines and Wallacea east to the Solomon Islands and south to Australia. They have a primarily white plumage , an expressive crest, and a black or pale bill...

, members of which are known as "white cockatoos".

Description

The adult Long-billed Corella measures from 38 to 41 cm in length, has a wingspan of about 80–90 cm and averages 567 g in weight. It has a long bone-coloured beak, and a rim of featherless bluish skin around the eyes. The plumage is predominantly white with reddish feathers around the eyes and lores. The underside of the wings and tail feathers are tinged with yellow

Distribution and habitat

The Long-billed Corella can be found in the wild around western Victoria and southern New South Wales. Feral populations have sprung up in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

 and SE Queensland from the release of captive birds. This has implications in Western Australia where this species may hybridize with the endangered southern race of the Western Corella

Western Corella

The Western Corella formerly known as the Western Long-billed Corella, is a species of white cockatoo endemic to south-western Western Australia.-Taxonomy:...

. It has extended its range in the past 15 years or so and can now be found (and is common) right through central VIC including areas around Melbourne.

The Long-billed Corella is found in grassy woodlands and grasslands, including pasture, fields of agricultural crop

Crop (agriculture)

A crop is a non-animal species or variety that is grown to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, fuel or for any other economic purpose. Major world crops include maize , wheat, rice, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton. While the term "crop" most commonly refers to plants, it can also include...

, and urban parks.

Ecology and behaviour

Call

The call of the Long-billed Corella is a quick, quavering, falsetto

Falsetto

Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...

 currup!, wulluk-wulluk, or cadillac-cadillac combined with harsh screeches.

Breeding

Breeding generally takes place from July to November. Long-billed Corollas form monogamous pairs and both sexes share the task of building the nest, incubating the eggs and caring for the young. Nests are made in decayed debris, the hollows of large old eucalypts, and occasionally in the cavities of loose gravely cliffs. 2–3 dull white, oval eggs are laid on a lining of decayed wood. The incubation period is around 24 days and chicks spend about 56 days in the nest.

Feeding

The Long-billed Corella typically digs for roots, seeds, corm

Corm

A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....

s and bulbs, especially from the weed onion grass

Romulea

Romulea is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the iris family distributed in Europe, the Mediterranean, and South Africa. The genus name refers to the legendary Rome founder Romulus, and alludes to the abundance of one of the species in the Roman countryside.Some of the species:*...

. Native plants eaten include Murnong and Microseris lanceolata

Microseris lanceolata

Microseris lanceolata is a perennial herb also known as murnong and yam daisy.It is found in many forms in Australia and on the island of Tasmania, the Tasmanian form being markedly smaller than the mainland Australian form.-Biological descriptions:A variable species, it has the form of a tufted...

, but a substantial portion of the bird's diet now includes introduced plants. They also eat sunflower seeds.

As pets

Long-billed Corellas are now popular as pets in many parts of Australia, although they were formerly uncommon, and their captive population has stabilised in the last decade. This may be due to their ability to mimic words and whole sentences to near perfection. The long-billed corella has been labeled the best "talker" of the Australian Cockatoos, and possibly of all native Psittacines.

As pests

Long-billed Corellas are viewed as agricultural pests, particularly in western Victoria and Western Australia. They can create significant crop damage and are also well known for tearing up pieces of asphalt along roadsides and even damaging power lines. Permits are regularly issued in Western Australia and sometimes issued in Victoria for the culling of this species.

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