Umbrella or "Blue-Eyed" Cockatoo?

[noodles123]

So, I have always referred to my bird as an Umbrella Cockatoo, but last night, I stumbled across pictures of "Blue-Eyed Cockatoos" and I couldn't really tell the difference between images of those birds and my bird. I will say that the blue around their eyes (on the Blue-Eyed variety) seemed slightly brighter....BUT...here is the weird thing....
According to descriptions of both varieties, U2s have yellow under wings and in their tail areas....WHILE, "Blue-Eyed Cockatoos" reportedly also have yellow in their crest feathers.....other than that, the only difference noted was the vibrant color surrounding the eyes

Is this correct? Mine has yellow under her tail, under her wings and under her crest...If so....
does that mean after all these years she isn't actually an Umbrella..Surely we haven't all been wrong!? lol

FYI-

Cacatua ophthalmica = Blue-Eyed Cockatoo

and Cacatua alba= Umbrella Cockatoo

 

[chris-md]

The name says it all. The eyes are dramatically different. That’s all you need to distinguish between the two. Either you have a blue ring or you don’t. Do you have a photo of yours you can share?

 

[noodles123]

I do- and I can, but what throws me off is the fact that repeatedly, descriptions of U2s fail to mention yellow feathers under the crest.
Hers are hidden, but when her crest comes up and you stand behind her, they are very visible. One site specifically mentioned this as a distinguishing factor between the 2 types....but if looking at her eyes alone, I would say the blue is less vibrant (I can tell it is blue from across the room, but it isn't neon).
There are some U2 images in which the eyes look less blue than hers, and others where they look about the same.

 

[noodles123]

I attached a low-quality image...It was taken with a terrible camera and poor lighting (mid-oatmeal) lol.

 

[jasper19]

You have an Umbrella Cockatoo

The blue on a blue eye cockatoo is much more distinct and brighter than the ring around your birds eye. It would be a very obvious blue color that pops out.

If you google some other pictures of U2's, you will see they have similar eye to the picture you posted.

 

[noodles123]

That's what I've known for years, until I wasn't sure anymore last night (due to the yellow under the crest) lol.


Is that typical? She has always had it (not visible unless I am scratching her head, or if she puts her "umbrella" up).

I just figured they all had yellow under their crests...I mean, she isn't the only one I've interacted with, but obviously she is very comfortable with me at this point so she's easier to inspect lol.

 

[TiredOldMan]

Anakins crest is pure white no yellow.

 

[noodles123]

Anakins crest is pure white no yellow.

Seee!! That's what I read...but her eyes look like a U2.... lol the plot thickens! I just can't imagine everyone having been wrong about this forever haha. Of course mine is an odd-ball...lol (PS- I am not saying she isn't an Umbrella, I just had no clue she was "unique"..more than any other lol)

 

[jasper19]

Anakins crest is pure white no yellow.

Seee!! That's what I read...but her eyes look like a U2.... lol the plot thickens! I just can't imagine everyone having been wrong about this forever haha. Of course mine is an odd-ball...lol (PS- I am not saying she isn't an Umbrella, I just had no clue she was "unique"..more than any other lol)

hmm interesting, are they just a few feathers under the crest that are yellow? Are they hard to seen or very faint in color? or are they vibrant?

 

[Owlet]

We recently let a baby umbrella go home and she had a little yellow under her crest if I remember correctly. now we have an older umbrella that we are boarding and she has no yellow.

 

[TiredOldMan]

Have you seen this thread? http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/76570-i-want-rescue-blue.html

Some good pics of a blue eye

 

[noodles123]

The under-crest feathers aren't neon...but they are about the same as her tail...The yellow is about 1/2 way up the backside of the majority of her crest feathers--if not more on some (the yellow is generally brightest near her head)- It is not visible when her crest is down unless I really mess up her "hair" lol-- and even when her crest is up, it is easiest to see if you stand behind her. I never even thought it was odd until reading about the other type last night.


She is also 10, she isn't going to grow out of it haha.


THANKS FOR ALL OF THE INPUT- STILL TRYING TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY!

 

[TiredOldMan]

http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/76617-just-want-blow-your-mind.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/76599-something-about-blue.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/76703-rescue-blue.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/77670-rescue-blue-updates-blue-come-home-me-now.html

 

[noodles123]

Her yellow doesn't stick out from behind like that, but some of the feathers may be ALMOST that yellow..maybe...but, again, there is OBVIOUS yellow under her crest lol.
Those eyes are blue, but it is so hard without having seen one in-person, as many U2s have fairly blue eye-circles lol
BUT...then again, some of those look a bit like her....I honestly thought that one on a patio(that was rescued)--SEE BELOW-- was also a U2!

THIS PICTURE (BELOW) IS NOT NOODLES:

The yellow in this image is more like the yellow under Noodles' crest (which very occasionally shows when her crest is down if she is having a bad-hair-day)..The yellow on Noddles' crest is somewhere between the color of the yellow on this bird's mid-back and on this bird's crest (Noodles' crest feathers are in the middle in terms of brightness).
Not sure her eyes are that blue though...just weird....


Is there any possibility that one of these could reproduce with an Umbrella and create what I have? That is probably a dumb question....

BLUE:A BLUE-EYED COCKATOO (For color comparison):

 

[TiredOldMan]

The hybrid theory has some merit in my opinion.

 

[noodles123]

All of my photos are so low-quality that they really look washed out and the sun from the window just makes the yellow look white....I tried to find a few that might show it, but again, it is really hard to see here...these images (esp the flying one), her crest looks whiter than it really is....You can just barely see the yellow because of the poor quality and lighting. In reality, her yellow crest looks about like the yellow in her tail (again, brightest at crown buy yellow almost half-way up) ughhhh..why don't I have any better images..?!

Her feathers look like crap in both of these images (screenshots from a video when she was molting and over-preening slightly)...they look a lot better now...but probably hard to see much of anything (bad or good) due to image-quality

 

[Siobhan]

Rocky has yellow under his wings and tail and used to have some faint yellow in his crest, but doesn't anymore. He has blue skin around his eyes. He turned 8 in April. Maybe the yellow in the crest of U2s is only when they're babies?

 

[EllenD]

I can't help you with the yellow/crest controversy, however, I can tell you that as already mentioned, you can immediately, without any question at all, identify a Blue-Eyed Cockatoo and differentiate it from any Umbrella Cockatoo. I see what you were referring to when you mentioned that your bird does have a little bit more pronounced blue ring around his eyes than some other Umbrella's do, but it's still looks nothing at all like the eyes of a Blue-Eyed Cockatoo...I mean, there's just no way to confuse a U2 with a Blue-Eyed Cockatoo if you look at their eyes/faces. So it's 100% safe to rely only upon their eyes to differentiate them from each other...

As far as the yellow on their crests, I've honestly never taken note of that with any of the U2's that I've seen, I guess some do and some don't, or rather it's much more pronounced in some than in others...

I have actually had 2 different occasions where people who had owned their birds for years and were surrendering them to the Rescue, and when they called us about surrendering them they told us that they were U2's, and when they came in with their birds, one was actually a Moluccan, and the other was a LS2...And these people had taken their birds to Avian Vets and were not corrected!!!

 

[wrench13]

Parrots have such a rangeof colors, even within a given species. For exampe my Salty is suposed tohave a all yellow forehead, but he has some orange feathers mixed in there , and oddly enough some blue ones too..

 

[noodles123]

Rocky has yellow under his wings and tail and used to have some faint yellow in his crest, but doesn't anymore. He has blue skin around his eyes. He turned 8 in April. Maybe the yellow in the crest of U2s is only when they're babies?

Mine is almost 11 though, and she has yellow there.



THANKS EVERYBODY!