When surprised, it extends a large and striking head crest, which has a semicircular shape (similar to an umbrella, hence the alternative name).

The white cockatoo is known as ayab (plural form: ayot) in the Burmeso language of Papua, Indonesia.

However, both upper and lower surfaces of the inner half of the trailing edge of the large wing feathers are a yellow color.

CITES data show significant harvest rates for the cage bird trade during the early 1990s.

Annual harvests have declined in actual terms and as a proportion of the remaining population in recent years, but illegal trade continues and is likely to have been underestimated (S. Metz in litt.

Eventually, the male mounts the female and performs the actual act of mating by joining of the cloacae.

In their natural habitat, umbrella cockatoos typically feed on various seeds, nuts and fruits, such as papaya, durian, langsat and rambutan.

(BirdLife International, 2001) They also eat large insects, such as crickets (order Orthoptera) and small lizards such as skinks.

[4] RSPCA supported surveys by the Indonesian NGO ProFauna suggest that significant levels of trade in wild-caught white cockatoos still occur, with 200+ taken from the wild in north Halmahera in 2007.

[5] The illegal trade of protected parrots violates Indonesian Act Number 5, 1990 (a wildlife law concerning Natural Resources and the Ecosystems Conservations).

[6] They were quite popular in China during the Tang dynasty, a fact which in turn influenced the depictions of Guan Yin with a white parrot.

The Fourth Crusade was also sealed between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the Sultan of Babylon in 1229 with a gift of a white cockatoo.