Cockatoos (Cacatuidae)

Short-billed Black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris)

French: Cacatoès à rectrices blanches German: Weißschwanz-Rußkakadu Spanish: Cacatúa Fúnebre Piquicorta
Other common names: Slender-billed/White-tailed/Carnaby’s Black-cockatoo/Cockatoo

Taxonomy: Calyptorhynchus latirostris Carnaby, 1948, Hopetoun, Western Australia.
Forms superspecies with C. funereus and C. baudinii. Long considered conspecific with C. baudinii, but currently treated as separate species because ecology also quite different, and bill significantly shorter than that of C. baudinii; difficulty in field identification, compounded by long history of conspecific treatment, have led to uncertainty regarding limits of range in area of overlap, and to publication of some inaccurate maps. Exhaustive analysis of all specimens available in superspecies suggested present species was so similar to South Australian C. fu.. View all taxonomy...

Taxonomy: Calyptorhynchus latirostris Carnaby,1948. Hopetoun, Western Australia.
Forms superspecies with C. funereus and C. baudinii. Long considered conspecific with C. baudinii, but currently treated as separate species because ecology also quite different, and bill significantly shorter than that of C. baudinii; difficulty in field identification, compounded by long history of conspecific treatment, have led to uncertainty regarding limits of range in area of overlap, and to publication of some inaccurate maps. Exhaustive analysis of all specimens available in superspecies suggested present species was so similar to South Australian C. funereus that it might perhaps be treated as race of latter. Monotypic.

Distribution: Inland and coastal SW Australia, in 300-750 mm rainfall zone.