When I first started working with parrot family birds more than 30 years ago, a cockatoo was a cockatoo. It seemed that many people thought of all of the cockatoo species as being essentially the same bird. Umbrellas and Moluccans were easily confused and usually assigned the same traits. Imported Goffin’s cockatoos were readily available, but many people thought of them as being mini umbrellas or Moluccans.
After working with various species of cockatoos, it became quite evident that the smaller cockatoos, which are now usually referred to as corellas, have very different personalities than the larger cockatoos.
The Goffin’s cockatoo and the bare-eyed cockatoo (or little corella) are the two most familiar companion corellas in the United States. Others include the Ducorp’s, the endangered Philippine red vent and the slender-billed cockatoo, which is the largest corellas. On the other hand, the rose-breasted cockatoo shares many of the personality traits of the corellas but is not classified as one. While lesser-sulfur and citron-crested cockatoos are not much larger than the corellas, they generally share many of the personality traits of the larger cockatoos.
**For the full article, pick up the October 2007 issue of BIRD TALK**
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