Cockatiel

The cockatiel is the smallest member of the cockatoo family, native to Australia, where it favors arid or semi-arid country, always close to water. It measures 30 to 33 cm, with long tail feathers making up roughly half its length. Largely nomadic, it moves to wherever food and water are available, and is seen in pairs or small flocks, sometimes hundreds gathering around one body of water. Wild birds mostly eat seeds, including Acacia, wheat, sunflower and sorghum. Its erectile crest signals mood: upright when startled, flat against the head when angry, and halfway up when tired.

About the cockatiel

The cockatiel is a small Australian parrot and the smallest member of the cockatoo family, Cacatuidae. It is the only species in its genus and sits in its own subfamily, Nymphicinae. Wild cockatiels live across mainland Australia's dry inland country, moving in pairs and flocks between food and fresh water.

For a long time, ornithologists weren't sure whether the cockatiel was a small cockatoo or a crested parakeet. Molecular studies settled it: the bird shares every hallmark of the cockatoo family, including an erectile crest, a gallbladder, powder down, and facial feathers that cover the sides of the beak, which makes it a relative of larger birds like the Moluccan cockatoo and umbrella cockatoo. Its long, pointed tail, which makes up roughly half of its 30–33 cm (12–13 in) length, is what made it look like a parakeet. That tail, about 15 cm (6 in) long, fans out in flight, and the bird adjusts its angle to control altitude and stability.

The scientific name, Nymphicus hollandicus, has a story behind it. Early European travelers found the birds so beautiful that the genus was named after mythical nymphs, and "hollandicus" refers to New Holland, an old name for Australia. In Australia the bird is also known as the weero, weiro or quarrion.

Wild-type cockatiels are mostly grey, with bold white flashes along the outer edge of each wing and a round orange cheek patch. Adult males have a yellow or white face and a bright cheek patch; females keep a mostly grey face, a duller orange patch and yellow barring under the tail. Young birds of both sexes look like females until their first molt, at about six to nine months old. The grey comes from melanin, while yellow and orange come from pigments called psittacofulvins.

The crest is the cockatiel's mood ring. It stands straight up when the bird is startled or alert, sits at a relaxed angle of roughly 45 degrees when the bird is content, and lies flat when the bird is angry or defensive. Like other cockatoos, cockatiels shed a fine white powder made of feather sheath and skin particles. In captivity, breeders have established 22 color mutations, including the pale lutino, the pied, the pearl and the cinnamon.

Behavior and diet

Cockatiels are very social. They usually travel in pairs or small flocks, but hundreds can gather around a single waterhole, and flocks can reach several thousand birds. Pairs form early and stay together all year, so they can start breeding as soon as conditions are right.

These birds are almost entirely ground foragers. They search open areas for sun-dried seeds, using the tongue to turn each seed while the upper beak strips the husk, a process that takes only a few seconds. Acacia, wheat, sunflower and sorghum seeds are typical foods, and flocks also eat fruit, berries and small ground-dwelling insects. To drink, a cockatiel takes one or two quick sips at a waterhole and then stretches its neck up to swallow and scan for danger.

That caution makes sense. Australian birds of prey are the main predators, and they strike from above while cockatiels feed. The grey plumage helps the birds blend into the ground, but the real defense is speed: cockatiels always flee by air and can fly faster than 64 km/h (40 mph). Loud, shrill alarm calls warn the rest of the flock, and a cornered bird can deliver a hard bite.

Breeding is triggered by seasonal rain. Pairs nest in hollows of trees near water, often eucalyptus, and the female lays 4–7 eggs, one every other day. Both parents incubate, the male by day and the female at night, for 17–23 days. Chicks leave the nest at about five weeks, and cockatiels are the only cockatoo that can breed by the end of their first year.

Cockatiels are vocal. Males sing courtship songs and are usually faster than females to learn speech, mimicry and melodies. Some birds learn to whistle tunes, copy household sounds like phones and alarm clocks, and even match their songs to a human singing along.

Range and habitat

Cockatiels are native to mainland Australia and are widespread across it, generally favoring inland areas over the coast. They live mainly in arid and semi-arid country but always close to water: open woodland laced with waterways, scrubland, wetlands and savanna around waterholes. They can be seen in western New South Wales and Queensland, around Alice Springs, in the Kimberley and in the northwest of Western Australia.

They are missing from the fertile southwest and southeast corners of the continent, from the deepest Western Australian deserts and from Cape York Peninsula. The species is largely nomadic. In the wetter north, flocks keep moving to wherever food and water appear, while in the south, where the weather is more regular, flocks migrate seasonally in groups of a hundred to a thousand birds.

Their habitat swings between extremes, from about 4.5 °C (40 °F) on winter nights to more than 43 °C (109 °F) in summer. Fresh water close to the nest means a pair rarely has to fly far to drink, but territories can span several miles from the nest, and foraging groups can range a long way from it.

Conservation status

The cockatiel is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It has a very large range and is common across the Australian mainland, so its population has never been precisely counted.

In parts of Australia it is treated as an agricultural pest, because flocks of several thousand birds can raid fields of sorghum, millet, wheat and sunflowers. There have been open seasons on cockatiels in Queensland, although the species is generally protected by law. Outside Australia, the cockatiel is one of the most widely kept companion parrots, second in popularity only to the budgerigar, and it breeds readily in captivity.