Little and Long-billed Corellas Learning to Use a New Food Source, the Seeds of Marri

Abstract

It has been shown that corellas Cacatua spp. are not capable of breaking open the larger, woody capsules of eucalypts to feed on the enclosed seeds. However, since being introduced to south-western Australia, both Long-billed C. tenuirostris and Little Corellas C. sanguinea have learnt to extract the large seeds of Marri Corymbia calophylla by modifying their feeding behaviour to tip out the seeds of the open capsules into the bill.