Great breeding success for critically endangered Citron-crested Cockatoos

Citron-crested Cockatoos ‘Cedric’ and ‘Barley’ are possibly the most productive of their species in Europe!

LEFT: Cedric busy eating a nut while her nest is checked  RIGHT: The two chicks are doing well

Director Alison Hales explains “We are really pleased that once again Cedric and Barley are successfully raising chicks here at the Park. Cedric, was hatched and hand-reared here at the Park back in 1993, while she was a juvenile she spent many years as part of the show team, appearing in the summer ‘Free Flying Bird Show’. Cedric is in fact female but she was named before her sex was known, and the name stuck! In 2010 she retired from the shows and was paired with ‘Barley’, and they have been a very busy couple.”

This sub-species of the Yellow-crested Cockatoo, comes only from the island of Sumba in Indonesia. Sadly, they have been trapped in large numbers and their preferred habitat is being lost to logging and conversion of forest to farming, so their population is now critically low.

Many visitors may remember Cedric appearing in the ‘Free Flying Bird Shows’ at the Park

Alison continues “Over the years, Cedric and Barley’s chicks have been placed to create breeding pairs throughout Europe. They have had twenty chicks together so their genes are well represented in the studbook which co-ordinates the species. A strong, genetically diverse, captive population is a back-up against extinction.”

Find out more about this species here: www.parrots.org/encyclopedia/yellow-crested-cockatoo