Species Yellow-crested Cockatoo

Yellow-crested Cockatoo

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) also known as the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, is a medium-sized (approximately 34 cm long) cockatoo with white plumage, bluish-white bare orbital skin, grey feet, a black bill, and a retractile yellow crest. The sexes are similar. Lessor, the cockatoo used in the TV series Baretta, was a Yellow-crested Cockatoo.

The Citron-crested Cockatoo, which is a subspecies of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, is similar, but its crest is orange.

The Yellow-crested Cockatoo is critically endangered. Numbers have declined dramatically due to illegal trapping for the cage-bird trade. Between 1980 and 1992, over 100,000 of these birds were legally exported from Indonesia yet a German proposal submitted to CITES to move it to Appendix I was not approved.

There is an introduced population of these birds in Hong Kong. They are a common sight across the densely populated area on both sides of the harbour, easily spotted in the woods and public parks in the north and west of Hong Kong Island.