The pink cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri), also known as Major Mitchell's cockatoo or Leadbeater's cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semiarid inland areas across Australia, with the exception of the north-east.
The bird reaches sexual maturity around 3–4 years old. The oldest recorded pink cockatoo died at 83 years old.
In contrast to those of the galah, populations of pink cockatoos have declined rather than increased as a result of man-made changes to the arid interior of Australia. Where galahs readily occupy cleared and part-cleared land, pink cockatoos require extensive woodlands, particularly favouring conifers (Callitris spp.), sheoak (Allocasuarina spp.) and eucalypts. Unlike other cockatoos, pink cockatoo pairs will not nest close to one another, so they cannot tolerate fragmented, partly cleared habitats, and their range is contracting.
In the Mallee region of Victoria where the galah and pink cockatoo can be found to be nesting in the same area, the two species have interbred and produced hybridised offspring occasionally.
The pink cockatoo is usually found in pairs or small groups, and feeds both on the ground and in trees.
