Template:POTD/2025-11-25
The pink cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri) is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semi-arid inland areas across Australia, with the exception of the north east. The bird has a soft-textured white and salmon-pink plumage and large, bright red and yellow crest. The sexes are quite similar although males are usually bigger, while the female has a broader yellow stripe on the crest and develop a red eye when mature. The pink cockatoo is usually found in pairs or small groups, and feeds both on the ground and in trees. Formerly known as Major Mitchell's cockatoo, after the explorer Major Thomas Mitchell, the species was officially renamed to pink cockatoo by BirdLife Australia in 2023, due to Mitchell's involvement in the massacre of Aboriginal people at Mount Dispersion and a general trend to make Australian species names more culturally inclusive. The bird is listed as endangered by the Australian government. This pink cockatoo in flight was photographed near Mount Grenfell in New South Wales, Australia.Photograph credit: JJ Harrison