Related to Cockatoos. Sometimes mistaken for Long Billed Corella

"Little Corellas are mostly white, with a fleshy blue eye-ring and a pale rose-pink patch between the eye and bill. In flight, a bright sulphur-yellow wash can be seen on the underwing and under tail. The sexes are similar in plumage, and young birds look like the adults, but are slightly smaller."

(sourced from "Birds in Backyards" website see link and description below)

Notes: Also called Bare-Eyed Cockatoo and Blood-Stained Cockatoo.

Common and widespread; in pairs or flocks (often numbering thousands of birds), frequenting open country interspersed with belts of scrub, or timber bordering watercourses. Roosts in flocks, close to water. Feeds on seed of grasses and other plants, also on bulbs and roots

Nest: Hole in a tree; occasionally in a hollow in a large termite mound.

Eggs: Usually three, white. Breeding season: August to October.

"Birds in Backyards (above) is a joint research, education and conservation program of the Australian Museum and Birds Australia. Find out more about Australian birds and their habitats."

 Click here to see the Little Corella fact sheet

They loved the cool afternoons and would play in the branches for hours. One game they liked was when one bird clung from a branch upside down. Another would hang upside down from that bird, then another until there were so many they couldn't take the weight anymore and they all fell swooping away just as they were about to crash to the ground. They would sit among the branches seeming to analyse the game for a while before starting up again. Maybe they were arguing over who would be anchor!

Another favourite game was pelting me with twigs when I was in the yard.

One year there was a massive blossoming of the cream flowers on the paperbark. I went outside to hang some clothes on the line. The whole time I was there I seemed to be suspended in a rain of flowers. I will never be able to express how beautiful it was, even if the Corellas just thought they were being mischievous.

The flock only comes by in small numbers now but they can be found clowning in a local lakeside park where there are dozens of really mighty paperbark trees for them to play in