“The large smoky-grey parrots fashion thick sticks from branches, grip them with their feet and bang them on trunks and tree hollows, all the while displaying to females,” Prof. “But the shy and elusive palm cockatoo, iconic to Cape York Peninsula in far North Queensland, Australia, plays the drums and crafts the sticks.”Īccording to the researchers, the palm cockatoo drumming is part of the species courtship ritual that involves a lot of calls and movements to attract a mate.
“While songbirds and whales can belt out a musical tune, few species recognize a beat,” said lead author Rob Heinsohn, professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University. The new findings, published in the journal Science Advances, show that the palm cockatoo drumming shares the ‘key rudiments of human instrumental music, including manufacture of a sound tool, performance in a consistent context, regular beat production, repeated components, and individual styles.’ They use modified sticks or seedpods to strike a hollow tree limb and create a loud noise that can be heard up to 100 m away. It weighs 500 g to 1.1 kg, with females ranging from 500 to 950 g and males ranging from 540 g to 1.1 kg.Īlso known as the Cape York cockatoo, the great palm cockatoo, the black macaw, the goliath cockatoo or the great black cockatoo, the palm cockatoo is also one of the loudest parrot species, making loud whistling calls.Īnother way palm cockatoos communicate is by stomping noisily on a perch. It is one of the largest parrots, ranging from 49 to 68 cm in height.
The palm cockatoo is a large smoky-grey or black parrot found in Australia and New Guinea. Male palm cockatoo ( Probosciger aterrimus) drumming on a hollow tree with a manufactured ‘drumstick.’ Image credit: Christina Zdenek.
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