Owner Comments:
I love gift giving occasions with my life partner. She asks what I want, I say “dinosaur coin” and she comes through with something amazing that I didn’t even know existed. This year, for our tenth anniversary, she came though again with another great coin featuring an amazing modern dinosaur: The Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo, species name Lophochroa leadbeateri.
As this is another of these amazing colorized coins featuring birds that have been coming out in recent years, you can see the Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo’s pink coloration for yourself. This distinctive coloration gives this cockatoo its other common name: The Pink Cockatoo. Like most parrots, the Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo exhibits very little sexual dimorphism. The only real difference between the sexes is that mature females have a wider stripe of yellow on their crest than males do and they have red eyes while males have black eyes. While red eyes sound fairly sinister, these medium size cockatoos are beautiful and cute enough to make it another endearing and beautiful feature. Sizewise, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos range in length from 15 to 20 inches with a wingspan of 32 inches and a weight of 12 to 14.9 oz. This is considered medium size for a cockatoo.
Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos call arid inland woodlands of Australia home. As far as feeding, they are omnivores, feeding on a wide variety of fruits, seeds, nuts, grasses, herbaceous plants, insects and insect larvae. They are aggressive feeders that will bite and attack if they are disturbed while feeding, likely an adaptation to their arid habitats where food can be scarce. In spite of this food based aggression, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos are gregarious birds which form large flocks in the wild. They are also rather nomadic, moving to different parts of their range seasonally in search of water and food supplies in their semi-arid and arid habitat.
Like most other parrots, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos mate for life. Pairs start nesting in August and September. They nest in shallow hollows of trees in their arid woodland habitat. Typically, between two and four eggs are produced and both parents take turns incubating the eggs. Once the chicks hatch, the female cares for and feeds the chicks at night and the male takes over during the day. The chicks first leave the nest cavity at around 57 days of age and they are independent at 6 months of age. Sexual maturity is reached between 3 and 4 years of age.
As far as life expectancy, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos are very long-lived, regularly attaining ages over 50 years. However, one Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo set a record for one of the oldest birds known. His name was Cookie and he was verified as hatching on June 30, 1933. In 1934, Cookie became a resident of the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, Illinois. Cookie was on display for the next 75 years, delighting zoo visitors of all ages from around the world with his intelligence, beauty, charisma and entertaining antics. After beginning to manifest some age-related health issues such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, Cookie was given a retirement from display in 2009, at an age of 76. After his retirement, Cookie enjoyed a low-stress life in the zoo keepers’ office of the Perching Bird House before finally succumbing to old age on August 27, 2016 at the age of 83. The zoo is planning a memorial for him. Aside from adding his species to this collection, this coin is also my memorial to Cookie as well. Though I never got to meet him, I've watched many videos of him and I feel like I got to know him a bit through that. He was a sweet and wonderful bird who will be missed by many, including myself.
Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos are extremely intelligent animals, and this intelligence combined with their charismatic good looks and smaller size for a cockatoo has led to many members of this species becoming pets. However, a Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo is not a good pet for most people. In addition to the aggressive feeding already mentioned, these birds tend to bond to only one person to the point where they sometimes will bite and scratch other people who try to interact with their person out of jealousy.
Their high intelligence also means that they need constant mental stimulation and if you have other pets, this mental stimulation can come in the form of picking on the other pets. They are particularly bad about buzzing, biting and clawing dogs, which are animals most pet birds dislike even in the best of situations. It is thought that this is because, in the wild, canids are often one of only three things to a bird: prey, possible competitor for food or a threat to their young and eggs. None of those things endear dogs to birds. Different species of cockatoos have also been observed in Australia harassing koalas in trees. As there is no real reason for the birds to do this, it is thought that they do it out of sheer entertainment value. A cat or dog makes a good koala substitute in captivity. But for keepers with the right kind of home (i.e. single pet, no kids) and with the time to spend nurturing the bird and stimulating it mentally, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos make one of the most loving and interactive all pet birds. But for most people, I’d say that the Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo is one of those modern dinosaurs that is best observed and enjoyed in its natural habitat or in a zoo or bird sanctuary.