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The Pinkertons
03-04-2016, 09:55 PM
3846

Major Mitchell's cockatoo
Major Mitchell's (aka) Leadbeater

In my personal experience, owning and caring for Major's for over 15 years, they are somewhat apprehensive, skittish, but with gentle consistent encouragement they can be quite the snuggle bugs. What I like about them is they can be perfectly ok playing on their own. They do need to be handled on a daily bases, gentle positive interaction to keep them tamed down, their temperament's are predictable whereas the "bigger Toos" are more complex and needy. Not the ear shattering calls of the big guy's, mine are pretty quiet, evening calls, flock calls, sound like screeching car brakes. Females tend to be more docile males are stoic.

Wikipedia says...

With its soft-textured white and salmon-pink plumage and large, bright red and yellow crest, it is often described as the most beautiful of all cockatoos. It is named in honor of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, who wrote, "Few birds more enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forest than this beautiful species whose pink-coloured wings and flowing crest might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region

Major Mitchell females and males are almost identical. The males are usually bigger. The female has a broader yellow stripe on the crest and develop a red eye when mature.[6

It is possible, though not certain, that the Major Mitchell's cockatoo is more closely related to Cacatua than is the galah, and that its lineage diverged around the time of or shortly after the acquisition of the long crest – probably the former as this crest type is not found in all Cacatua cockatoos and therefore must have been present in an early or incipient stage at the time of the divergence of the Major Mitchell's cockatoo's ancestors. Like the galah, this species has not lost the ability to deposit diluted pigments dyes in its body plumage, although it does not produce melanin coloration anymore, resulting in a lighter bird overall compared to the galah. Indeed, disregarding the crest, Major Mitchell's cockatoo looks almost like a near-leucistic version of that species (see also "External links" below). Another indication of the early divergence of this species from the "white" cockatoo lineage is the presence of features found otherwise only in corellas, such as its plaintive yodeling cry, as well as others which are unique to Major Mitchell's and the true white cockatoos, for example the large crest and rounded wing shape.

Distribution and habitat...

In contrast to those of the galah, populations of the Major Mitchell's cockatoo have declined rather than increased as a result of man-made changes to the arid interior of Australia. Where galahs readily occupy cleared and part-cleared land, Major Mitchell's cockatoo requires extensive woodlands, particularly favoring Callitris, Allocasuarina and Eucalyptus. Unlike other cockatoos, Major Mitchell pairs will not nest close to one another, so they cannot tolerate fragmented, partly cleared habitats, and their range is contracting.

Mitchell's cockatoo is listed as a threatened species on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988).[9] Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared.[10]


One Major Mitchell's cockatoo that has become quite famous is "Cookie," a beloved resident of Illinois' Brookfield Zoo near Chicago since it opened in 1934. Cookie is 82 years old and has retired from actively being displayed. He currently resides in the keeper's office at the Perching Bird House

spiritbird
03-04-2016, 10:04 PM
Thank you for the in-depth write up. Love the photo! Have you seen the action statement for future management?

The Pinkertons
03-04-2016, 11:13 PM
Thank you for the in-depth write up. Love the photo! Have you seen the action statement for future management? No I haven't I 'll try to look for it, still learning to navigate this forum :th_smile:

plax
03-04-2016, 11:22 PM
Thanks for the terrific contribution, Suzanne :)

The Pinkertons
03-04-2016, 11:31 PM
Your welcome, I keep seeing typo's, getting O.C.D. on the editing button ! :eeeek:

luckyandjenn
10-23-2016, 11:15 PM
Fun read beautiful birds