Cockatiel

Overview

Cockatiels are the smallest member of the cockatoo family and are endemic to Australia, where they inhabit open country and lightly wooded areas across the continent. They are highly nomadic, following water sources and seeding grasses. Cockatiels were the first parrot species to be widely bred in captivity and remain among the most popular pet birds worldwide, prized for their gentle temperament, whistling ability, and trainability.

Quick Facts

History

Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the bird in 1788 as Psittacus novaehollandiae, Robert Kerr renamed it Psittacus hollandicus in 1792, and Johann Georg Wagler gave it a genus of its own, Nymphicus, in 1832. Australia prohibits the export of its native birds, a restriction carried today by the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act of 1982, so cockatiels kept anywhere else descend entirely from stock already outside the country. Breeders answered that closed border with color. A pied mutation appeared in California in 1949, lutino followed in 1958, cinnamon during the 1950s and pearl in 1967, and those four underpin nearly every variety on sale now.