Cockatiel

Nymphicus hollandicus

Robert Kerr was the first to describe the species, in 1792.

Nymphicus is from the Latin nymphe (nymph-like) and hollandicus, which refers to
New Holland, an early name for Australia.

Ebenezer Edward Gostelow, The Cockatiel (Leptolophus hollandicus) 1930 (adult female, left; adult male, right)

Author’s note: The Cockatiel was one of the first Australian birds to be shipped live to Europe where it quickly became a popular cagebird. When Karl Russ wrote Speaking Parrots: A Scientific Manual (1884), he was snobbishly ambivalent about the species: ‘It is a pretty but odd-looking bird, and is of value to the fancier because it is peaceable in the aviary and breeds without difficulty. Otherwise it is extremely stupid, and may become wearisome by reason of its continued monotonous cry’.

William T. Cooper, Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus) 1970 

(adult female, left; adult male, right)

Author’s note: Australia is home to 14 of the world’s 21 cockatoo species, including all of the black-cockatoos. The cockatiel is the smallest of the cockatoos.

Edward Lear, Palaeornis Novae-hollandiae, New Holland Parrakeet, in the
Possession of the Right Hon. the Countess of Mountcharles between 1830 and 1832 (adult female, left; adult male, right)

Author’s note: This hand-coloured lithograph is the first published illustration of the species. Lear’s blue-grey male cockatiel was one of several colour mutations, presumably drawn from a captive-bred specimen in the aviaries of the Countess of Mountcharles. Such colour oddities rarely survive in the wild.