Foods of Corellas Cacatua pastinator in Western Australia

Abstract

The contents of crops from 138 Cacatua pastinator collected throughout Western Australia were examined. Abundances of the various food items reflected the land-use where the birds were collected. In the lower south-west, C. p. pastinator ate mainly Romulea rosea bulbs with moderate amounts of Avena sativa and Poa annua seeds whereas, in the wheatbelt the most frequent food for both C. p. pastinator and C. p. gymnopsis was wheat Triricum aestivum with Emex australis, Hordeum vulgare and A. sativa as important items. The diets of C. p. gymnopsls in the Murchison and Pilbara regions, and C. p. sanguinea in the Kimberley region, were more diverse with native species predominating except for those specimens collected around towns and farms where mainly wheat, oats A. sativa or sorghum Sorghum sp. had been eaten. This and other studies, indicate that corellas have broad food preferences that enable them to exploit a wide variety of habitats including those altered by humans.