The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo is a magnificent cockatoo widely distributed throughout Australia. The Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo on the other hand is much less numerous and may in fact be under some threat. Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoos can be distinguished from other subspecies by their relatively smaller size but proportionally massive beak adapted for crushing the base of Marri nuts to extract the seeds. Once mature, Red-tailed Black Cockatoos are easy to sex. Males are a slaty-black colour with a black bill and a vivid red band in the tail.
Females are black but with numerous yellow spots and yellow fringed feathers.
Threats Due to the dependence of these large birds on large hollow logs for nesting, any disturbance to the natural vegetation of an area which reduces the number of old trees has the potential to threaten the population of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. Apart from habitat destruction the other major threat to their survival is from poaching of eggs or chicks from the nest to be sold on local or overseas black markets. Not only does this practice reduce the number of chicks for the season, but the poachers often also destroy the nest hollow in the process and render it useless for further breeding attempts. Poaching is illegal and if caught, poachers face heavy fines or jail terms. The Zoos of Australasia cooperate in captive breeding programs to save threatened species from extinction.