Appearance
The gang-gang cockatoo is a grey bird with a wispy crest. The head and crest is bright red in males, but dark grey in females. The edges of feathers in underparts have edges of yellow or pink. The edges of feathers on upperarts are slightly paler grey than the rest of the feather, which makes the bird look somewhat barred. Juvenile males can be distinguished by their brighter crowns and shorter crests, but otherwise look similar to the adult female. The birds are not easily mistaken for other cockatoos, but while in flight may resemble the Galah. Gang-gangs are very social birds, but not overly noisy.
Distribution
The gang-gang is endemic to coastal regions of south-eastern Australia. They used to inhabit King Island off of Tasmania, but they have since gone extinct locally. They are an introduced species on Kangaroo Island. The gang-gang prefers forests and woodlands in the mountains with dense shrub understories. The birds migrate short distances during winter into more open habitats. However they must migrate back to denser forests to breed, as they need tall trees in order to build nests.
Status
Loss of older, hollow trees and loss of feeding habitat across south-eastern Australia through land clearing has led to a significant reduction in the numbers of this cockatoo in recent years. As a result, the gang-gang is now listed as vulnerable in New South Wales. It is protected as a vulnerable species under the ''Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016'' . This protection status as a threatened species makes it a Tier 1 criminal offence for a person or corporation to knowingly damage the bird's habitat. Damage is defined to include "damage caused by removing any part of the habitat". Habitat is defined to include "an area periodically or occasionally occupied by a species".
Habitat
The gang-gang is endemic to coastal regions of south-eastern Australia. They used to inhabit King Island off of Tasmania, but they have since gone extinct locally. They are an introduced species on Kangaroo Island. The gang-gang prefers forests and woodlands in the mountains with dense shrub understories. The birds migrate short distances during winter into more open habitats. However they must migrate back to denser forests to breed, as they need tall trees in order to build nests.
Reproduction
Unlike most other cockatoos, gang-gangs nest in young, solid trees, the females using their strong beaks to excavate nesting cavities. Also, they breed in the canopy of most trees.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
