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PHILIPPINE COCKATOO
Class:
Aves
Status: Endangered
Range: Endemic
only to the Philippines.
Scientific Name: Cacatua
haematuropygia
Local Name: Katala (Visayan), Agay (Palawan)
The Philippine Cockatoo is a very common cage bird capable of
mimicking the human voice. It has a predominantly white plumage
which produces a distinct contrast against the color of the forest
making them easy to locate in the dense foliage.
Before, the cockatoo can be found in the Visayas and Sulu
archipelago but it can now only be found in a few islands there.
Small flocks can still be found in Palawan, in St. Paul's
Subterranean River National Park and Pandanan Island and it has also
been sighted within the El Nido Marine Reserve.
The species was previously locally common, but due to abusive
exploitation, it has become rare and confined to certain areas.
It is an endemic species in the Philippines, where records show that
it formerly thrives in Basilan, Bohol, Boracay, Catanduanes, Jolo,
Leyte, Luzon, Marinduque, Mindoro, Negros, Panay, Polillo, and
Samar, among others. In the Palawan Faunal Region, it has been
recorded in the islands of Balabac, Busuanga, Calauit, Culion,
Coron, and on the Mainland. The exemplary conservation efforts of
the Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Program has greatly contributed
in replenishing the population of this species, where an estimated
80 heads are now thriving on Rasa Island in Southern Palawan.
The species is supposedly a resident in lowland, riverine, and
mangrove forests, but may be found in forest edge and open fields as
well as high in the mountains. It also tends to wander in flocks
outside the breeding season and may raid crops particularly corn.
Crimson Backed Woodpecker
English: Crimson Backed Woodpecker
Tagalog: Karpintero
Scientific: Chrysocolapteus Lucidus
Characteristics
The crimson-backed woodpecker (Chrysocolaptes lucidus) is common in
open woodlands from India to the Philippine Islands. The green
woodpecker (Picus viridis) ranges throughout the woodlands of
temperate Eurasia and south to North Africa. The deciduous forests
of the southeastern United States are the habitat.
The Crimson-backed woodpecker is frequently found in both original
and second-growth forest in the hills up to about 600 m. elevation,
near the upper limit of the dipterocarp forest zone. occasionally it
visits the partly burned dead trees left standing in abandoned
clearing close to forests.
It is a noisy bird making loud fast-repeated noter as it goes about
in its search for food, drumming against wood. The birds usually
goes about in pairs which keep track of each on the in the dense
growth by means of the oft-repeated notes. the tapping on a large
partly burned hollow tree, produces a very loud sound that closely
resembles that produced by a modern riveting machine.
The birds is not at all shy and allow close approach, while
carryings on nonchalantly its search for food.
The species is distributed from India and Ceylon, east to Burma,
Thailand and Indochina, and the Philippines and south to Malaysia.
At least seven endemic races are known in the Philippines.
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