Male Gang-gang Cockatoos are easily distinguished by their wispy red crest, which looks like a feather duster.

Female Gang-gang cockatoos can sometimes be mistaken for Galahs due to their colouring and small size. The females are not as brightly coloured as the males, and have a grey head and body with a barred breast and orange-red underparts. Gang-gang Cockatoos are small for cockatoos, usually around 33-36 cm long. The Gang-gang Cockatoo ( Callocephalon fimbriatum) is a small cockatoo with the male displaying a very distinctive scarlet head and crest. Their diet is varied and adaptable, and includes native plant seeds, introduced plant seeds, berries, fruits, nuts and insect larvae.

Gang-gangs spend most of their day feeding in trees, and sometimes also forage on the ground for fallen fruits or pine cones.

These sharp and distinct sounds are characteristic of cockatoos, who are usually quite loud and gregarious. These calls have been likened to the drawn out sounds of a cork being removed from a bottle, and a rusty hinge on a gate.

Apart from softly growling while eating, Gang-gang Cockatoos communicate in an ‘er-eck‘ or a ‘ gr-raer-iriek!‘ sound.

They choose to live in mountains, alpine woodlands and tall wet forests and gullies, preferring heavily timbered and mature wet sclerophyll forests to build their home Gang-gang Cockatoos retreat to higher elevations to breed during the summer. They are especially frequent visitors in Canberra, and as a reward for their loyalty have become the ACT’s animal emblem. They prefer eucalypts, wattles and introduced hawthorns and will also eat berries, fruits, nuts and insects and insect larvae. Gang-gang Cockatoos regularly visit backyards and parks in eastern Australia to feed on native and introduced tree and shrub seeds.

This has given Gang-gangs the nicknames Red-headed Cockatoo and Red-crowned Cockatoo. The dark red of their crest and head stands out against their slate grey bodies. The Gang-gang Cockatoo ( Callocephalon fimbriatum) are small for cockatoos, usually around 33-36 cm long. Male Gang-gang Cockatoos are easily distinguished by their wispy red crest, which looks like a feather duster.

Gang gang cockatoo predators