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The sulphur-crested cockatoo is probably Australia's best known parrot. These birds are often kept as pets, as they are extremely intelligent and are very good at learning to talk.

They can live to be more than 70 years old.

They grow to about 50 centimetres in length, and weigh 750–950 grams.

The cockatoo population is widely distributed throughout most types of open-timbered country in northern, eastern and south-western Australia.

They eat the seeds of grasses and herbaceous plants, grains, bulbous roots, berries, nuts and leaf buds.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos nest in hollow limbs or holes high up in eucalyptus trees, near water. They breed between August and January in the south and March to September in the north of the country.