Indeed, disregarding the crest, Major Mitchell's cockatoo looks almost like a near- leucistic version of that species. Like the galah, this species has not lost the ability to deposit diluted pigment dyes in its body plumage, although it does not produce melanin coloration anymore, resulting in a lighter bird overall compared to the galah. Major Mitchell's cockatoo may be more closely related to Cacatua than is the galah, and that its lineage diverged around the time of or shortly after the acquisition of the long crest probably the former as this crest type is not found in all Cacatua cockatoos, so must have been present in an early or incipient stage at the time of the divergence of the pink cockatoo's ancestors.
Citing Lear, William Swainson gave it the name Plyctolophus erythropterus. Edward Lear painted it in his 1832 work Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots. The scientific name commemorates the London naturalist and taxidermist Benjamin Leadbeater, who had given Vigors what would become the type specimen. Irish naturalist Nicholas Aylward Vigors described the species in 1831 as Plyctolophus leadbeateri. Major Mitchell's cockatoo ( Lophochroa leadbeateri), also known as Leadbeater's cockatoo or the pink cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semi-arid inland areas of Australia, though it is seen regularly in other climates, for example, South-East Queensland's subtropical region. Plyctolophus erythropterus Swainson, 1837
0 kommentar(er)
