"Is it really a Cockatoo?"

[David]

Originally Posted by xasterix

Necro'ing this thread because I fancied putting a Maranao kris (with a vintage hilt) beside my vintage sarimanok.

It's pretty close- but in the correct-side-up orientation, not in the upside-down pommel orientation. The upside-down is incompatible because a sarimanok's tail is always upward-oriented

Well, as with most things that we encounter in SEA, there are multiple ways of interpreting just about everything. So while we can imagine just the head depicted here with the the kris in one orientation i don't think we need to dismiss the possibility of the entire body being depicted in the reverse position. And while i agree that in most old sculptural depictions of sarimanok the tail section is oriented upward i have also seen many images of sarimanok (albeit, more recent ones) where it goes downward.
Regardless of how we interpret it though, i still favour sarimanok as the bird in question. I cannot find anything in Moro or Filipino lore that makes any strong spiritual connect to the kakatua, while sarimanok has strong mythological connections in this area.