Probosciger aterrimus
Male Palm Cockatoos fashion a stick or seedpod, hold it in one foot, and strike a hollow tree during courtship. Researchers found regular rhythms—and meaningful differences between individual drummers.
Australia's Cape York Palm Cockatoos breed exceptionally slowly and require large, old hollow-bearing trees. Damaging fire regimes, land clearing, and mining can remove stages that take decades to replace.
The Australian subspecies is federally listed as Vulnerable and has been listed as Endangered in Queensland; status varies across the species' wider range.
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Read BirdLife Australia's conservation brief ↗Links go directly to conservation organizations.Eighteen males. Individual styles.
Researchers analyzed 131 drumming sequences from 18 wild males. The taps occurred at non-random, regular intervals.
Individual males differed significantly in their timing patterns, producing what the researchers described as individual drumming styles.
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