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Baudin's (long-billed) black cockatoo        Images © Mark A. Chappell

In the southwest corner of Western Australia, two species (or perhaps subspecies) of white-tailed black cockatoos occur:   Carnaby's, or short-billed black cockatoo and this species: Baudin's, or long-billed black cockatoo.   The two species closely resemble each other, and even the bill length is not strikingly different.   Both are large, imposing, noisy, social birds that look much like the yellow-tailed black cockatoo of eastern Australia, except that the yellow of the latter is replaced with white.   Like other large cockatoos (such as the red-tailed black cockatoo of northern Australia), white-tailed blacks use their large, powerfull bills to open thick-shelled seeds and nuts, but they also feed on other plant material.   These were photographed along the coast near Nornalup, Western Australia.

  • Canon 1D3 or 7D2; 500 mm IS lens plus 2X extender or 800 mm IS plus 1.4X extender, fill-in flash (2009, 2016)