Blue-eyed Cockatoo
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| Cacatua ophthalmica Sclater, 1864 |
The Blue-eyed Cockatoo, Cacatua ophthalmica is a large, up to 50cm long, white cockatoo with an erectile yellow white crest, grey color beak and feet, and a prominent light blue ring of featherless skin around each eye, that gives this species its name.
Both sexes appear very similar. Some males have a dark brown iris and some females have a reddish brown iris, but this small difference may not always be reliable as a gender indicator.
Like all cockatoos and many parrots, the Blue-eyed Cockatoo can use one of its zygodactyl feet to hold objects and to bring food to its beak whilst standing on the other foot; nevertheless, amongst bird species as a whole this is relatively unusual. They pair for life.
The Blue-eyed Cockatoo is distributed and endemic to lowland and hill forests of New Britain in Papua New Guinea, and it is the only cockatoo in the Bismarck Archipelago. A common species throughout its range, the Blue-eyed Cockatoo is evaluated as Least Concern on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Cacatua ophthalmica. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
