Pink Cockatoo The pink cockatoo - Cacatua leadeateri - is also known as Leadbeater's cockatoo and Major Mitchell's cockatoo. It has had other names through the years, with Major Thomas Mitchell calling it the red-top cockatoo, rather than naming it after himself. The indigenous name from the Swan River region for the bird is Jak-kul-yak-kul. Other names include desert cockatoo, chockalott, chock-a-lock, joggle joggle and wee juggler - an anglicisation of the Wiradjuri name wijugla. It's a fun name, but clearly does not advertise the juggling skills of this particular bird. Pink cockatoos begin breeding at around three or four years of age and can live into their eighties. They require extensive uninterrupted woodlands as they will not nest close together. Unlike the galah, therefore, the pink cockatoo is not responding well to human colonisation of its habitat and its numbers are declining.
