Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

White cock­a­toos are found in the North Moluc­cas of the Maluku province of In­done­sia. They occur nat­u­rally on the is­lands of Halma­hera, Bacan, Ter­nate, Kasiruta, Tidore, and Man­di­oli. White cock­a­toos have been found on the is­land of Obi and its satel­lite Bisa, but they are be­lieved to have been in­tro­duced to the area as es­caped cap­tive pop­u­la­tions. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001; Ju­niper and Parr, 1998)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • introduced
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

White cock­a­toos oc­cupy wooded areas. They are found in forests and open wood­land, man­groves, swamps, agri­cul­tural areas and are par­tic­u­larly com­mon around the edge of clear­ings and rivers. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy. It has been sug­gested that tall sec­ondary veg­e­ta­tion is their pre­ferred habi­tat. They are found at el­e­va­tions of 300 to 900 m. (Arndt and Pittman, 2003; "Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001; Ju­niper and Parr, 1998)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• riparian

• Range elevation

  300 to 900 m

  984.25 to 2952.76 ft

• Average elevation

  500 m

  1640.42 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Ca­catua alba is a large white bird with blunt-ended feath­ers. It has yel­low­ish col­oration on the un­der­side of its wings and tail. It is often re­ferred to as the "um­brella cock­a­too" be­cause of its broad, back­ward-bend­ing crest. The crest is fan-shaped when erect. The beak and legs are dark grey. Sex­ual di­mor­phism oc­curs in the eye col­oration of C. alba. Both sexes have a pale blue eye-ring, but males have a dark brown iris while fe­males have a red­dish iris. Fe­males usu­ally have a smaller head and beak than males.

Ca­catua alba weighs 500 to 630 g and is 46 cm long, on av­er­age. Its wingspan is 25 to 31 cm. (Arndt and Pittman, 2003; Ju­niper and Parr, 1998)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• ornamentation

• Range mass

  500 to 630 g

  17.62 to 22.20 oz

• Average length

  46 cm

  18.11 in

• Range wingspan

  25 to 31 cm

  9.84 to 12.20 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Courtship be­hav­ior in C. alba is very im­pres­sive. It be­gins with the male show­ing off his body by ruf­fling his feath­ers, spread­ing his tail feath­ers, ex­tend­ing his wings, and erect­ing his crest. He then bounces about. The fe­male avoids him at first, but even­tu­ally per­mits him to come near her. They then scratch each other around the head and tail. This serves to strengthen the bond be­tween the two birds. After some time, the male mounts the fe­male and they mate through the join­ing of the cloaca. Adults that have pre­vi­ously mated suc­cess­fully have a much shorter courtship rit­ual, and the fe­male often ap­proaches the male.

Mates form a close bond with one an­other and are monog­a­mous, with pair-bonds last­ing through­out their lives. They can slip into a deep de­pres­sion if re­moved from their part­ner. In the ab­sence of a mate, white cock­a­toos in cap­tiv­ity will bond to a care­taker as if that per­son were its mate. (Lanter­mann, et al., 2000)

• Mating System
• monogamous

The breed­ing sea­son of C. alba is de­pen­dent on the weather. They begin breed­ing when plant growth has reached its peak (usu­ally be­tween De­cem­ber and March). Pairs leave their group and find a nest­ing spot in a tree. They gen­er­ally choose nest­ing holes in only the largest trees, and nest be­tween 5 to 30 me­ters above ground. They usu­ally lay two eggs, oc­ca­sion­ally three. The male and the fe­male share the re­spon­si­bil­ity of in­cu­bat­ing the eggs until they hatch; in­cu­ba­tion usu­ally lasts 30 days. Typ­i­cally, the par­ents raise only one of the chicks. If the first chick to hatch is healthy, they care for that one. If it is mal­formed or un­healthy, they raise the sec­ond chick. Chicks are born al­tri­cial. They learn to fly at three months of age but are still de­pen­dent on the par­ents for an­other two to three weeks. White cock­a­toos reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity in six years. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001; Lanter­mann, et al., 2000)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  White Cockatoos breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs when vegetation growth is at its peak, usually between December and March.

• Average eggs per season

  2

• Average eggs per season

  2

  AnAge

• Average time to hatching

  30 days

• Average time to hatching

  30 days

  AnAge

• Average fledging age

  3 months

• Range time to independence

  3.5 to 4 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  5 to 6 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  5 to 6 years

The male and the fe­male share the re­spon­si­bil­ity of in­cu­bat­ing the eggs. Typ­i­cally, the par­ents raise only one of the chicks. If the first chick to hatch is healthy, they care for that one. If it is mal­formed or un­healthy, they raise the sec­ond chick. Ca­catua alba chicks are born al­tri­cal and are com­pletely de­pen­dent upon their par­ents. Both par­ents are in­volved in car­ing for young, al­though fe­males play a larger role. Chicks learn to fly at three months of age but are still de­pen­dent on the par­ents for an­other two to three weeks. Once a chick is able to care for it­self, the group of three re­joins the rest of the flock. (Ju­niper and Parr, 1998; Lanter­mann, et al., 2000)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• altricial
• pre-hatching/birth
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Ca­catua alba can live over 40 years in cap­tiv­ity and 30 years in the wild. Peo­ple have made claims of cock­a­toos liv­ing up to 100 years, though these claims have not been doc­u­mented. (Arndt and Pittman, 2003; "Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  26.9 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  30 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  40 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  26.9 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Ca­catua alba gen­er­ally oc­curs singly, in pairs and small groups, or in flocks of up to fif­teen birds. In the af­ter­noon, they gather in groups of up to fifty birds. Al­though they are so­cial, with the ex­cep­tion of mat­ing pairs, they gen­er­ally do not form close bonds with one an­other. As a re­sult, there is no firmly de­fined order of dom­i­nance in the com­mu­nity. They are di­ur­nal and tend to be seden­tary, al­though some may be no­madic and wan­der in search of food.

White cock­a­toos are ex­tremely bright and in­quis­i­tive birds. They have the abil­ity to use tools, such as using a branch to scratch their backs. Birds in cap­tiv­ity re­quire nearly con­stant men­tal stim­u­la­tion. They are con­stantly mov­ing, climb­ing, and doing gym­nas­tics. In cap­tiv­ity, birds with too lit­tle men­tal stim­u­la­tion often be­come neu­rotic, pluck­ing their feath­ers to the point of bald­ness.

Cap­tive white cock­a­toos are known to be very af­fec­tion­ate with their human com­pan­ions, act­ing much more like a dog than a bird in this re­spect. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001; Ju­niper and Parr, 1998; Lanter­mann, et al., 2000)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• nomadic
• social

Home Range

We do not have in­for­ma­tion on home range for this species at this time.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Ca­catua alba com­mu­ni­cates with its mate through a va­ri­ety of ges­tures and noises. They also scratch each other dur­ing the mat­ing rit­ual. They have also been ob­served using pieces of wood to bang on trees and logs to alert other birds that the ter­ri­tory be­longs to them. (Lanter­mann, et al., 2000)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

In the wild, C. alba mainly feeds on fruits of trees. They are often ob­served feed­ing on pa­paya, durian, langsat and rambu­tan. How­ever, they have been seen eat­ing crick­ets (order Or­thoptera) and skinks (fam­ily Scin­ci­dae). They also feed on maize grow­ing in fields, some­times doing con­sid­er­able dam­age. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • frugivore

• Animal Foods
• reptiles
• insects

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

We do not have in­for­ma­tion on pre­da­tion for this species at this time.

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ca­catua alba helps to dis­perse seeds and their nests are prob­a­bly used as habi­tat for other an­i­mals in the non-breed­ing sea­son. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

White cock­a­toos are com­monly sold as pets through­out the world; they can cost $1,500 each. They are also pop­u­lar among In­done­sian tourists.

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Ca­catua alba can cause con­sid­er­able dam­age to corn crops. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001)

• Negative Impacts
• crop pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

There are twenty-six bird species that are en­tirely re­stricted to the North­ern Maluku En­demic Bird Area. Ca­catua alba is one of eight threat­ened birds in this area. The great­est threat to wild white cock­a­toos is cap­ture for the pet mar­ket. It is es­ti­mated that 17% of the world's pop­u­la­tion was re­moved an­nu­ally be­tween 1990 and 1993. The United States is by far the largest con­sumer of wild caught white cock­a­toos, with 10,143 im­ports recorded be­tween 1990 and 1999. For­tu­nately, so far, the pop­u­la­tions have been rel­a­tively re­sis­tant to such large pres­sures from the trade mar­ket. This is prob­a­bly due to their con­sid­er­able ca­pac­ity to re­pro­duce, their abil­ity to adapt to changes in habi­tat, and their lack of preda­tors and com­pet­i­tive species.

Ca­catua alba is also threat­ened by de­for­esta­tion and hunt­ing.

Ca­catua alba is listed as vul­ner­a­ble by the IUCN and was placed on CITES Ap­pen­dix II in 1981. The In­done­sian gov­ern­ment began is­su­ing quo­tas on trap­ping in 1988 after be­com­ing a part of CITES. How­ever, the quo­tas were poorly en­forced. In 1999, no quota was is­sued, mak­ing any cap­ture il­le­gal. The zero quota will re­main in ef­fect until a more re­li­able sys­tem for en­forc­ing quo­tas is es­tab­lished. ("Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book", 2001)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• CITES

  Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Alaine Cam­field (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Erin Lane (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

BirdLife In­ter­na­tional. 2001. Threat­ened birds of Asia: the BirdLife In­ter­na­tional Red Data Book. Cam­bridge, UK: BirdLife In­ter­na­tional.

UNEP World Con­ser­va­tion Moni­ter­ing Cen­tre. 2003. "Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 14, 2004 at http://​www.​cites.​org/​eng/​resources/​species.​html.

In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources. 2002. "IUCN" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 14, 2004 at http://​www.​redlist.​org.

Kay­tee. 2004. "Um­brella Cock­a­too" (On-line). Kay­tee. Ac­cessed April 14, 2004 at http://​www.​kaytee.​com/​companion_​animals/​birds/​umbrella_​cockatoo/​.

Arndt, T., T. Pittman. 2003. "White Cock­a­too" (On-line). Lex­i­con of Par­rots.

Ju­niper, T., M. Parr. 1998. Par­rots: A Guide to the Par­rots of the World. East Sus­sex, TN: Pica Press.

Lanter­mann, W., S. Lanter­mann, M. Vriends. 2000. Cock­a­toos: A Com­plete Pet Owner's Man­ual. Hong Kong: Bar­ron's.