There are 21 species of cockatoo in the world. Every one of these species has a crest that can be put up or down. All species occur in Australia, Indonesia and the island around Oceania.
The species of cockatoo can be divided into white cockatoos (Cacatua species), “dark” cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus species) and a few other species. At the bottom of this page you will find a graph of the relatedness of these species. Here I will list all the species and add a link to a page that describes this species more closely.
White Cockatoos (Cacatua Species)
- Umbrella cockatoo (Cacatua alba)
- Ducorps corella (Cacatua ducorpsii)
- Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)
- Eleonora cockatoo (Cacatua galerita eleonora) (subspecies of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo)
- Mathews’ cockatoo (Cacatua galerita fitzroyi) (subspecies of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo)
- Triton cockatoo (Cacatua galerita triton) (subspecies of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo)
- Goffins cockatoo or Goffini cockatoo (Cacatua goffini)
- Red-Vented Cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia)
- Major Mitchel’s Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri)
- Moluccan Cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis)
- Blue-Eyed Cockatoo (Cacatua ophthalmica)
- Little Corella (Cacatua sanguinea)
- Lesser Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea)
- Citron Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata) (subspecies of Lesser Sulphure-Crested Cockatoo)
- Long-Billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris)
Raven Cockatoos / “Dark Cockatoos” (Calyptorhynchus Species)
- Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii)
- Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami)
- Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus)
- Short-Billed Black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) – Carnaby’s black cockatoo
- Long Billed-Black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) – Baudin’s black cockatoo
Other Cockatoo Species
- Gang-Gang cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum)
- Palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus)
- Galah cockatoo (Eolophus roseicapilla)
- Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus)
Relatedness Between Cockatoo Species
In the next graph you can see how all the cockatoo species are related to each other. You can determine the relatedness of two species by comparing the length of the bars, less distance between species means more relatedness. Species that are less related to each other, will have a common ancestor that is farther up in the tree (to the left) than species that are more closely related. In this particular phylogenetic tree, the Palm cockatoo (Probosciger) is the least related to all other species of cockatoos. In the graph you can also see that there are two groups of Cacatua species: the bigger species (with Cacatua alba) and the smaller corellas (with Cacatua sanguinea). The Raven cockatoos are a separate group as well, with five species that are more related to each other than to all the other cockatoo species.
Phylogenetic tree of cockatoo species, showing their relatedness to each other.
Species covered on this website
Click on the link for more information and pictures of this cockatoo species.