This blog is about two species of white cockatoos: the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) and the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea).
Both have the same colours so I was able to make the paintings with the same pallet, but the character and appearance of the birds are quite different. That is how I set out to portray them: the rowdy larger one and the sweeter disposition of the smaller one.
The large Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is an expressive noisy bird that is quick in showing its large yellow crest. They are widespread in Australia and have adapted well to urban settlements.
The Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo also know as the Yellow-crested Cockatoo is the smallest bird in the subgenus of white cockatoos and is critically endangered. Numbers have declined dramatically due to illegal trapping for the cage-bird trade. It is found in wooded and cultivated areas of Indonesia's islands.
The white cockatoos were one of the mark species for 19th century naturalist Alfred Wallace in his discovery of the differences in mammal and bird fauna living on groups of islands in East-Asia that seemed to be separated by a linear division. The white cockatoos live on the west side of that division which is now called the Wallace line. Wallace's notification was the prelude of the discovery of oceanic plates and subduction zones.
Enjoy the paintings.
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