Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo - Taxonomy and Naming

Taxonomy and Naming

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo was first described in 1794 by the English naturalist George Shaw as Psittacus funereus, its specific name funereus relating to its dark and sombre plumage, as if dressed for a funeral. The French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest reclassified it in the new genus Calyptorhynchus in 1826. The genus name is derived from the Greek words καλυπτός (calyptos) "hidden" and ῥύγχος (rhynchos) "beak".

The ornithologist John Gould knew the bird as the Funereal Cockatoo. Other common names used include Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Yellow-eared Black Cockatoo, and Wylah. Wy-la was an aboriginal term from the Hunter Region of New South Wales, while the Dharawal name from the Illawarra region is Ngaoaraa. Scientist and cockatoo authority Matt Cameron has proposed dropping the "Black" and shortening the name to "Yellow-tailed Cockatoo", explaining that shorter names are more widely accepted.

Within the genus, the Yellow-tailed and the two Western Australian white-tailed species, the Short-billed and Long-billed Black Cockatoo, form the subgenus Zanda. The Red-tailed and Glossy Black Cockatoos form the other subgenus, Calyptorhynchus. The two groups are distinguished by differing juvenile food begging calls and the degree of sexual dimorphism. Males and females of the latter group have markedly different plumage, whereas those of the former have similar plumage.

The three species of the subgenus Zanda have been variously considered as two, then as a single species for many years. In a 1979 paper, Australian ornithologist Denis Saunders highlighted the similarity between the Short-billed and the southern race xanthanotus of the Yellow-tailed and treated them as a single species with the Long-billed as a distinct species. He proposed that Western Australia had been colonised on two separate occasions, once by a common ancestor of all three forms (which became the Long-billed Black Cockatoo), and later by what has become the Short-billed Black Cockatoo. However, an analysis of protein allozymes published in 1984 revealed the two Western Australian forms to be more closely related to each other than to the Yellow-tailed, and the consensus since then has been to treat them as three separate species.

Within the species, two subspecies are recognised:

• C. f. funereus, the nominate form, is known as the Eastern Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. It is found from Berserker Range in central Queensland, south through New South Wales, and into eastern Victoria. It is distinguished by its overall larger size, longer tail and wings, and larger bill and claws.

• C. f. xanthanotus, known as the Southern Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, is found in western Victoria, southeastern South Australia, the islands of Bass Strait, and Tasmania. Gould described it in 1838 and later changed his spelling to "xanthonotus". However, the first name was recognised as taking precedence under ICZN naming rules and its spelling preserved. Saunders reported in 1979 that male birds from Tasmania had wider bills than their mainland relatives, and that Tasmanian female birds were larger than males. However, this observation has yet to be replicated and most authorities only recognize two subspecies. If a third subspecies is recognized, the southern mainland subspecies would be named whiteae, having been named so by Gregory Mathews in 1912, and the name xanthanotus, originally applied to a Tasmanian specimen, would be restricted to the Tasmanian population.