What is a gang-gang cockatoo?
The gang-gang cockatoo is a small grey cockatoo of southeastern Australia. Males have a bright red head and wispy crest, while females are grey with orange-red barring on their chest.
Gang-gangs live in mountain forests and woodlands from central New South Wales to Victoria, moving to lower areas and towns in winter. Their call is a creaky, rasping sound often compared to a squeaky gate or a cork being pulled from a bottle.
They feed mainly on the seeds of eucalypts, wattles and introduced trees such as hawthorn and pyracantha, often quietly in the treetops.
Endangered emblem
The gang-gang is the bird emblem of the Australian Capital Territory and appears on the ACT's logo. It was listed as endangered nationally in 2022, after the 2019-20 bushfires burned much of its habitat.
Gang-gangs nest in tree hollows, which can take more than a century to form.
Canberra residents often help count gang-gangs in citizen science surveys.
Did You Know?
The name gang-gang comes from an Aboriginal language of New South Wales.