What Do Cacatua Eat?

There are about 21 species of cockatoo, genus Cacatua. The cockatoo has a powerful bill, short legs with strong feet and plumage that ranges from pure white with pale yellow or pink underwings, tail and crest, to pink to gray to black. It's native to New Guinea, Indonesia and parts of Australia, and can also be found in New Zealand. They live in tropical and subtropical rain forests as well as parks and gardens.

  1. Habits

    • The cockatoo is an intelligent, tough and demanding bird (in captivity). They're noisy, intensely attached to their owner and inquisitive. They can live for decades in the wild and a well cared for pet bird can live an average of 65 years, but can live up to 120 years. In the wild cockatoos gather in great screeching flocks in open fields and on farmlands to feed. They roost in trees at night. The cockatoo's diet is quite varied.

    Seeds and Grain

    • The cockatoo eats the seeds of the gully gum and other eucalyptus trees. The seeds dropped in great numbers from native wattle trees might also be on the cockatoo's menu. Cockatoos eat the seeds of the kanari and black bean trees. Palm cockatoos also eat the seeds excreted by cassowaries, possibly because the seeds have been softened by passage through the larger bird's gut. The powerful beak of a cockatoo can crack the shell that hides the seed of the casuarina tree. The casuarina is a delicate looking but tough tree and its seeds are encased in cones few birds can crack -- except for the cockatoo. The cockatoo also eats recently sprouted grain crops like wheat or barley.

    Fruit

    • The cockatoo eats the buds and fruit of the nonda tree and the banksia, a native Australian tree grown in gardens. The tree grows 13 to 50 feet tall and the bird is attracted to the golden fuzzy flowers that contain nectar. (The banksia is also called the honeysuckle.) Later the banksia's seed pods pop open like clam shells. Cockatoos will also feast on the fruit of the walking palm (Pandanus), a tree that grows to 20 feet tall, has sharp spines on the edges of its leaves and produces an orange-red segmented fruit.

    Roots, Tubers and Insects

    • The cockatoo will dig up and eat corms like taro. It might dig up the rhizomes of ginger, whose origins are in Oceania, and eat the more tender leaves, stalks and flowers of wild ginger. It can also dig up the rhizomes of turmeric and eat the young shoots and tips. Cockatoos will also eat insects and their larvae.