Black and gold: yellow-tailed cockatoo

By AG STAFF 19 August 2015
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A yellow-tailed cockatoo shows off his colours while feeding in Tasmania

Congratulations to this week’s AG Flickr group member Michael Schmid, for his image ‘yellow-tailed black cockatoo’. 

This week’s Flickr pic was taken by Michael, a self-taught photography enthusiast living in Townsville:

“Wherever my wife and I travel in this beautiful country I am on the lookout for birds to photograph. This yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) caught my eye on the outskirts of Smithton in the north-west of Tasmania.

It was one of a group feeding on fallen banksia seed pods. The light was very low, being late afternoon and overcast to boot. However, the birds were quite sedate so I decided to risk a slow shutter speed to preserve image quality. I sat on the ground and braced myself as well as I could, held my breath and hoped for the best.

Later, when editing the image, I was thrilled to notice that the subject has a real air of serene intelligence,” he said.

This image appeared in the Australian Geographic Flickr group. Share your own photography and it could be featured on Australian Geographic online.

You can also submit your images to us directly HERE