The Short-billed Black-cockatoo is distributed in the south-west of Western Australia. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in heathland and woodland cones of Banksia and Dryandra.

The male has a dark bill and pinkish skin around the eye as in the bird on the right of photos 1 and 2. The female has a pale bill.

It was previously lumped with Long-billed Black-cockatoo Z. baudinii but that species is now split on the basis of its long upper mandible, the fact that it feeds on seeds of marri which require the longer bill and its forest rather than woodland habitat.