They are seed eaters and cavity nesters, and as such depend on trees with fairly large diameters, generally Eucalyptus.

[3] The species complex was first described by the ornithologist John Latham in 1790 as Psittacus banksii,[4] commemorating English botanist Sir Joseph Banks.

The red-tailed black cockatoo also has the distinction of being the first bird from Eastern Australia illustrated by a European, as a female, presumably collected at Endeavour River in north Queensland, was sketched by Banks' draughtsman Sydney Parkinson in 1770.

[5] Narrowly predating Latham, English naturalist George Shaw described Psittacus magnificus from a specimen collected somewhere in the Port Jackson (now Sydney) region.

[6] For many years, the species was referred to as Calyptorhynchus magnificus,[7] proposed by Gregory Mathews in 1927 as Shaw's name had predated Latham's 1790 description.

[8] The red-tailed black cockatoo is the type species of the genus Calyptorhynchus,[9] the name of which is derived from the Greek calypto-/καλυπτο- "hidden" and rhynchus/ρυγχος "beak".

[12] The binomial combination had already been used by Carl Linnaeus for the lesser vasa parrot in 1758,[13] and by Johann Friedrich Gmelin for the palm cockatoo in 1788; it was thus invalid even though both other species were already known by different names at the time.

Females are black with yellow-orange stripes in the tail and chest, and yellow grading to red spots on the cheeks and wings.

[40] Juvenile red-tailed black cockatoos resemble females until puberty, which occurs around four years of age, but have paler yellow barred underparts.

[25] As the birds reach maturity, males gradually replace their yellow tail feathers with red ones; the complete process takes around four years.

It is widespread and abundant in a broad band across the northern half of the country, where it has been considered an agricultural pest,[45] with more isolated distribution in the south.

It is found in a wide variety of habitats, from shrublands and grasslands through eucalypt, sheoak and Acacia woodlands, to dense tropical rainforests.

[5] The bird is dependent on large, old eucalypts for nesting hollows, although the specific gums used vary in different parts of the country.

Cockatoos are not wholly migratory, but they do exhibit regular seasonal movements in different parts of Australia.

[46] In other parts of the country cockatoo seasonal movements tend to follow food sources, a pattern recorded in Northern Queensland,[47][48] and New South Wales.

In northern and central Australia, birds may feed on the ground, while the two southern subspecies, graptogyne and naso, are almost exclusively arboreal.

[52] Breeding generally takes place from May to September except in the case of the South-eastern subspecies, which nests during summer (December to February).

[54] Although red-tailed black cockatoos feed on a wide variety of native and introduced grains, the mainstay of their diet is eucalyptus seeds.

[36] Red-tailed black cockatoos have been implicated as agricultural pests of peanut and other crops at Lakeland Downs in Far North Queensland.

[68] In 1997, the Northern Territory Government's Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts (now defunct) proposed a plan for management of the trade in eggs and nestlings of C. b. macrorhynchus.

[68] The bird is part of an annual census, the Great Cocky count, that has been held every year since 2009 to track the population change of Red-tailed and other black cockatoos.

However, with an increase in interest in conservation, more aviculturists are concerned about maintaining the integrity of the separate subspecies in cultivation, and so avoid crossbreeding.