This is a Palm Cockatoo, also know as the Goliath Cockatoo.

Palms are distinguished by their size, huge beak (second only to the Hyacinth Macaw among psittacines and largest proportionate to size), solid black feather coloration, large open crest, bare red cheeks, and red and black tongue. You have to see their tongues to believe the coloration. It's amazing.

Palm Cockatoos are severely threatened. They are CITES Appendix I birds and are protected in Australia.

As a testament to their rarity, typical prices in the U.S. for Aterrimus Palms are around $8000 and Goliaths around $14,000. Perhaps contributing to their rarity is the fact that, according to both Low and Forshaw, they lay only one egg per clutch.

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Did you know there is an island floating in the Pacific Ocean made entirely of garbage?


The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of trash and debris in the North Pacific Ocean. The center of this region of water is very calm because it lies within a gyre. A gyre is a circulating current in the ocean formed by wind patterns and the Earth’s rotation. Garbage does not escape easily from this region, and the rotation of the water here tends to draw trash in. The majority of the debris is composed of small plastic pieces that may not be visible to the naked eye but also do not biodegrade. Similar areas also exist in the Atlantic Ocean. This phenomenon is well-documented in shallow ocean depths. Now, according to scientists at the Montere ...