Red Tailed Black Cockatoo

As it's name suggests, the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is a cockatoo with a large collection of black and scarlet/red feathers in the tail, at least in the males.
Females have yellow spots on the head, neck and wings, and orange-yellow barring on the breast and under tail. 

Similar are the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, they are distinguished by the yellow panels on their tail and a yellow patch on their cheeks.

I chose to draw the red tail (even though you can't see the tail in my illustration !)- as their crest on top of their heads are much much fuller. They use this crest, which forms a helmet, when the bird raises it and pushes it forward.
I really wanted to capture that helmet of feathers to set a contrast between my illustration of the Black Cockatoo and Sulphur Crested White Cockatoo.

Creating the perfect set.

Created with just lead pencil, watercolours and gouache paints.