Cacatua is a genus of cockatoos known as great cockatoos found from the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands to Australia. They have a primarily white plumage (in some species tinged pinkish or yellow), an expressive crest, and a black (subgenus Cacatua) or pale (subgenus Licmetis) bill. Today, several species from this genus are considered threatened due to a combination of habitat loss and capture for the wild-bird trade, with the blue-eyed cockatoo considered vulnerable, Moluccan cockatoo, and umbrella cockatoo considered endangered, and the red-vented cockatoo, yellow-crested cockatoo and citron-crested cockatoo considered critically endangered.
Taxonomy Although the name Cacatua was used in 1760 by French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson, he did not include it in his table of genera and Brisson is not recognised as the authority by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). The genus Kakatoe was introduced by Georges Cuvier in 1801 but this name has been suppressed by the ICZN and instead Louis Pierre Vieillot is recognised as introducing the genus Cacatua in 1817. The type species was designated as the white cockatoo by Tommaso Salvadori in 1891.
The name Cacatua is from the Malay language words Kakatuá and Kakak-tuá for the cockatoos.
Species The genus contains 13 species.
Subgenus Image Scientific name Common name Distribution Cacatua - true white cockatoosCacatua sulphurea Yellow-crested (or lesser sulphur-crested) cockatoo, East Timor and Indonesia's islands of Sulawesi and the Lesser SundasCacatua citrinocristata Citron-crested cockatoo Sumba in the Lesser Sunda Islands in IndonesiaCacatua galerita Sulphur-crested cockatoo Australia, and New Guinea and some of the islands of Indonesia Cacatua ophthalmica Blue-eyed cockatooNew Britain in Papua New GuineaCacatua alba White (or umbrella) cockatooHalmahera, Bacan, Ternate, Tidore, Kasiruta and Mandioli (Bacan group) in North Maluku, Indonesia Cacatua moluccensisSalmon-crested (or Moluccan) cockatoo Seram archipelago in eastern IndonesiaLicmetis - corellasCacatua tenuirostris Long-billed corellaAustraliaCacatua pastinator Western corellaSouth-western Australia Cacatua sanguinea Little corella Australia and southern New GuineaCacatua goffiniana Tanimbar corella (or Goffin's cockatoo) Yamdena, Larat and Selaru, all islands in the Tanimbar Islands archipelago in IndonesiaCacatua ducorpsii Solomons corella (or Ducorps's cockatoo) Solomon Islands archipelagoCacatua haematuropygia Red-vented (or Philippine) cockatoo PhilippinesLophochroa - pink cockatoosCacatua leadbeateriPink (or Major Mitchell's/Leadbeater's) cockatooInterior and western Australia
References
Juniper, T., & M. Parr (1998). A Guide to the Parrots of the World. Pica Press, East Sussex.