Philippine Cockatoo

The Philippine cockatoo, also called the red-vented cockatoo or katala, is the only wholly white land bird in the islands, so it is hard to confuse (Collins Bird Guide). The red feathers under the tail give it away: the undertail coverts are red with white tips, while the rest of the undertail is yellowish and the underwings are pale yellow. It is smaller than most cockatoos and quieter, with a bleating call alongside the screeches and whistles typical of the family (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds mostly on seeds, and also takes fruit, flowers and nectar; it eats rice and corn, which is why farmers have treated it as a pest. Non-breeding birds roam in flocks of up to about 30 (Collins Bird Guide). Nests are in tree cavities, mainly from February to June. Captive breeding shows a clutch of two or three white eggs, about 28 days of incubation and nine to ten weeks before the chicks leave the nest (Wikipedia, general species account).

Once found on nearly every large island and many small ones, it has been lost from most of its range, mainly because chicks were taken from nests for the cage-bird trade. Its stronghold is the Palawan region, where the Katala Foundation has run a conservation programme since 1998; around 180 birds live in the wild around Narra and Puerto Princesa, including Rasa Island. Key sites went from 23 birds in 1998 to 260–340 by the end of 2015, and a nest-protection scheme on Pandanan raised its colony from 40 to at least 230. Droughts on Rasa have caused nest failure of up to 60% (Wikipedia, citing the Katala Foundation and published sources).