The Black Cockatoo, or the Palm Cockatoo, is the largest species of cockatoo.  It boasts solid black feather colouration, large open crest, bare red cheeks, and a red and black tongue.  The beak of this bird is so enormous that it never fully closes.  The Black Cockatoo is found in Northern Australia on Cape York Peninsula.

A courting male cockatoo will choose a stick, trim it to size, and then drum with it on a hollow branch.  Male and female may perform a drum duet when their chick is old enough to leave the nest.  It is the only cockatoo that builds a nest.  The male and female build it together during courtship by dropping sticks into a hollow log.  The sticks collect and form a little platform.  This keeps the egg and chick from drowning if water collects in the log's bottom.

Courtesy of Katrina Chapman 2004