The sheer variety of Parrots in Australia has left me wondering on how evolution has been shaped by isolation. While the parrots I am used to in India are mostly green, I wonder how they managed to come in such huge variety of colours and hues in Australia. Previously I have posted a White Cockatoo, a multi coloured lorikeet and today is another contrast a Black Cockatoo. Commonly called the Gang gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum ) I spotted a male and the female in the blue mountains. The male has a scarlet head and the female has a grey head and crest, with both sexes having yellow edged plumage.
Biologists are still trying to find a satisfactory answer to this variation in plumage and hopefully they will get and answer sooner than later. Meanwhile, my quest to see as many of the 40 different parrots found only in Australia continues.
The name Gang gang, is very interesting. It is derived from an onomatopoeic aboriginal name. Many aboriginal names have reduplication like Rainbow Lorikeet is wirritywirrity, white sea eagle is makmak, tyunguttyungut is fgrogmouth owl and so on.
In the photographs, the top is the mature Male, Followed by Juvenile and the last two are females.
That's all for now- have a nice day.
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