CANBERRA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest cockatoo is facing extinction within a decade without further protections for its only habitat.
Robert Heinsohn, an expert from Australian National University (ANU), told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the sole population of the Palm Cockatoo in far north Queensland is in rapid decline.
The cockatoo, which is easily identifiable by its distinctive black plumage and large size, is currently considered vulnerable but conservationists are pushing for it to be re-classified as endangered because its habitat is being lost to mining and land clearing.
Heinsohn has been studying the Palm Cockatoo since the 1990s and described it as "one of the spectacles of the bird world."
"They are magnificent large parrots and very ancient ... right from the start of the family tree for parrots ... and they are just incredibly striking to look at," he told the ABC on Friday.
Heinsohn said that they are the only known bird in the world that uses a tool musically.
"They break off a branch and peel back the bark, they whittle it down to about 30 centimeters and they hold it in their foot and tap on the edge of their nest hollow," he said.
"They not only look good but are the rock stars of the bird world ... making drumsticks from branches and banging out tunes to attack to the bird ladies.
"They have a very good sense of rhythm and different styles of drumming signatures.
"There are 18 males that we've recorded in action trying to attract a female and they were all different."
Female Palm Cockatoos lay only one egg every two years but Heinsohn said that the eggs were now hatching rarely.
"Our long-term field data, gathered over 20 years now, shows that the female only lays one egg every second year and that's normal, but what we're finding that those eggs are not making it, so there are very, very low rates of reproduction," he said.
