Cockatoo with no crest ? Sydney, Australia (1 Viewer)

[Madeline Grace]

Hello ! I’m brand new to this, I signed up about 3 minutes ago !
We have heaps of birds that come to our backyard throughout the day (but mainly early morning and late afternoon), and today this little guy appeared ! Normally the cockatoos come in groups (of varying numbers) but this one came all alone, and was a bit more timid than the ones that know us now. He came earlier today and then an hour or so later when i opened the back door to the deck he flew down again. This one doesn’t seem to have a crest at all, he (?) was in the garden for a long time and was letting me get closer and closer so i took some photos. I’m not an expert at all just passively curious, it doesn’t seem to have any trace of the yellow crest at all, but does look like he has the pale yellow feathers under his tail and wings like the others do, and you can see in some light the light yellow on the cheeks.
Might be super obvious and I just don’t know. I use Merlin to keep track of the birds that I see in the garden but there wasn’t anything like this one on there. Just wondering if anyone knows anything !
(I couldn’t add videos to this post so added some photos and some screenshots from videos where you can see under hiss wings etc)

 

[maplekong]

Hi, I don't know much about these birds in particular, but could it be a white cockatoo? They have a white crest and images online look similar to this one.

 

[maplekong]

It's on the wrong side of the world but it may be an escaped cage bird, they are endangered because of habitat loss and the cagebird trade. Google suggests they can live up to 60 years in captivity.

 

[maplekong]

It's probably not one, does anyone else know?

 

[Madeline Grace]

Hi, I don't know much about these birds in particular, but could it be a white cockatoo? They have a white crest and images online look similar to this one.

I thought the same when I was looking it up earlier, but the white cockatoo still has a white crest and this one didn’t seem to have that big white crest. Whenever this one puffed up its feathers (idk the terminology haha) there was no crest at all, so I’m still not sure !

 

[THE_FERN]

Difficult to rule out white cockatoo (found on halmahera, unlikely to be widely kept in oz), but I don't get a vibe that this is one. If it were it ought to have a marked white crest and I don't think the bill is large enough. I suspect this is a young Sylphur-crested

 

[Madeline Grace]

Difficult to rule out white cockatoo (found on halmahera, unlikely to be widely kept in oz), but I don't get a vibe that this is one. If it were it ought to have a marked white crest and I don't think the bill is large enough. I suspect this is a young Sylphur-crested

Ooh do the sulphur crested cockatoos not get the yellow crest until they’re older ? My only thing is that it was the same size as the sulphur crested we get every day, I’m trying to see if i have a photo from today with both for comparison

 

[THE_FERN]

Ooh do the sulphur crested cockatoos not get the yellow crest until they’re older ? My only thing is that it was the same size as the sulphur crested we get every day, I’m trying to see if i have a photo from today with both for comparison

Macaulay library images suggest recently fledged birds do lack the crest. However, this bird looks more "adult" than those (which have, for example very short tails).

White/white-created cockatoo is actually around 4 cm smaller than Sulphur-crested. This might not sound like much but it should be apparent in a direct comparison.

Iirc laws in oz are (rightly) quite strict about what birds people can keep. I'd be surprised if white cockatoo were at all widespread.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Madelaine and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

Just wondering if they moult at this time of year as you're approaching summer? Searching our Gallery for images taken at a similar time of year may help with that. You can get there easily by the yellow search link at the bottom of our Opus article for the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - BirdForum Opus this surely must be the most likely ID. I was in Brisbane from the 21 September a few years ago and all had crests then (that I saw anyway). I've not heard any mention of moulting though.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[Madeline Grace]

Macaulay library images suggest recently fledged birds do lack the crest. However, this bird looks more "adult" than those (which have, for example very short tails).

White/white-created cockatoo is actually around 4 cm smaller than Sulphur-crested. This might not sound like much but it should be apparent in a direct comparison.

Iirc laws in oz are (rightly) quite strict about what birds people can keep. I'd be surprised if white cockatoo were at all widespread

Hmm okay, I’ll have to keep an eye out and hope it comes back and try to get a photo of it with the others, it was here all afternoon today and seemed very comfortable lingering around the garden, my dad said he saw it yesterday as well so hopefully it comes back tomorrow and I’ll post photos ! Thank you so much for all your help !!

 

[Madeline Grace]

Hi Madelaine and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators.

Just wondering if they moult at this time of year as you're approaching summer? Searching our Gallery for images taken at a similar time of year may help with that. You can get there easily by the yellow search link at the bottom of our Opus article for the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo: Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - BirdForum Opus this surely must be the most likely ID. I was in Brisbane from the 21 September a few years ago and all had crests then (that I saw anyway). I've not heard any mention of moulting though.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

Hi Delia thank you for the welcome
I did as you said and had a look at photos from around the same time of previous years but i didn’t see anything too similar ? I could be missing something very obvious but I couldn’t find much about whether they moult their crests when I googled it either, just that they moult their other feathers. I know next to nothing about them but is it possibly for it to just be a random natural occurrence that it was born without it’s crest ? We’ve had them coming to the garden for quite a while now and though occasionally get a bird that looks a little rough and like it’s crest has been ripped apart, I’ve never seen one look so completely and naturally void of it’s crest !
Either way he’s very cute and I will keep digging and try to get more photos of him !

Thank you for your help !

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

To me this looks as if the yellow crest feathers have been plucked off, maybe lost during a fight with another cockatoo or an attack by a predator?
that would also be a rather rare event , but in this case he should normally regrow these feathers ...

 

[Madeline Grace]

To me this looks as if the yellow crest feathers have been plucked off, maybe lost during a fight with another cockatoo or an attack by a predator?
that would also be a rather rare event , but in this case he should normally regrow these feathers ...

Yea I’m not sure, it could be the case. The rest of him looks completely fine though, to me anyway, but who knows

 

[Colin Gould]

HI, I am new to this group but found it when I was searching for information about a crest-less cockatoo which has appeared in my garden along with a small flock of about a dozen - all the others do have the usual yellow crest. The crestless one doesn't seem to be ostracised by the others and even participated in grooming with one this morning. I have attached a few photos hoping that someone "out there" might know more about this. Has it "lost" the crest? Is maybe a mutant?

 

[delia todd]

Is he flying OK? That right wing looks damaged and appears to have had the flight feathers cut off?

 

[Colin Gould]

Yes, he seems to be OK - flew off with the others.