South-eastern red-tailed black-cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne

Red-tailed black-cockatoos are specialist feeders, relying almost entirely on the seeds of brown and desert stringybark (Eucalyptus baxteri and E. arenacea) and buloke trees (Allocasuarina luehmannii). The cockatoos feed almost entirely on the stringybark species that has fruited most recently and there are marked periods of food shortage between new crops. For a period of 2-3 months in late summer and autumn the seeds of buloke can be a very important source of food in years when it has seeded prolifically.