CARNABY'S BLACK COCKATOO
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The personality of the Carnaby's black cockatoo is as big as the bird itself. A much-loved icon of Western Australia, this conspicuous and impressive bird, with its white tail panels and cream-coloured cheek patches, grows to about 60 centimetres in height. Playful and seemingly always hungry, it breeds in large tree hollows in the Wheatbelt of WA in winter and moves to the Swan Coastal Plain to feed on native seeds and insect larvae for much of the year. It announces its arrival raucously and lives a highly social life, often in small flocks. Couples pair for life. The devoted father can fly more than 12 kilometres a day to feed his partner during egg incubation and their one chick stays at home with its parents for 18 months. This stunning bird is one of just two species of white-tailed black cockatoo found on Earth – the other is the Baudin’s cockatoo. Both species are endangered and found only in Southwest Australia, and though they might live for 40-50 years, a large proportion of those birds that remain are past breeding age. Populations have more than halved in the past 45 years and the Carnaby's cockatoo is now locally extinct in many parts of the central Wheatbelt, largely due to the loss and fragmentation of its habitat.
What we're doing
Creating and restoring habitats
WWF is working hard to protect and restore the breeding and feeding habitat of the Carnaby’s black cockatoo.
Management agreements with landholders
WWF is supporting Birdlife Australia to develop management agreements with private landholders to protect cockatoo habitat and undertake on-ground management actions. These include fencing areas of habitat, installing nesting boxes and planting cockatoo food trees.
Habitat restoration on the Swan Coastal Plain and in the Perth Hills
Supported by Perth Region NRM's Resilient Landscapes Program, WWF is working with our partners and the community to protect, enhance and restore areas of threatened black cockatoo habitat on the Swan Coastal Plain and in the Perth Hills.
Why it matters
Carnaby's black cockatoos are highly visible flagships for Southwest Australia, a global biodiversity hotspot. But while they may be big, they’re certainly not invincible. In fact, Carnaby's black cockatoos are losing the habitats where they breed and feed at an alarming rate. Community-based surveys such as the Great Cocky Count continue to show an estimated population decline of 15% per year on the Swan Coastal Plain, alone. During the nesting season (roughly July–February) the Carnaby’s black cockatoo nests in the hollows of the salmon gum and wandoo woodlands that remain in WA's Wheatbelt – and these days their choices are limited. During the non-nesting season, birds can be seen in banksia woodlands, coastal heath and pine plantations, and in remnant bushland parks and gardens throughout the Perth region. But the question is, for how much longer?
Carnaby's black cockatoo
Common Name
Carnaby's black cockatoo
Scientific Name
Calyptorhynchus latirostris
Stats
Total population estimated at around 40,000 birds (2010); Swan Coastal Plain population estimated at 8,000 birds.
Status
Listed as Endangered (EPBC Act 1999).
Between the 1970s and 1990s, Carnaby’s black cockatoos disappeared from over one-third of their former range. Now they’re locally extinct in many parts of the central Wheatbelt. The entire population is believed to have halved.
Did you know?
- Between the 1970s and 1990s, Carnaby’s black cockatoos disappeared from over one-third of their former range. Now they’re locally extinct in many parts of the central Wheatbelt. The entire population is believed to have halved.
- Males and females can be distinguished by the colour of their beaks: females have white beaks and males have black beaks. Both sexes have a white cheek patch and males have a pink eye-ring.
Threats
The biggest threat to the Carnaby's black cockatoo is habitat loss in its rural and urban environments. Large-scale clearing for agriculture in the Western Australian Wheatbelt has removed or fragmented much of the bird's breeding habitat, and ongoing clearing for urban development on the Swan Coastal Plain is greatly reducing the extent of its feeding habitat. The Carnaby's cockatoo also suffers when old nesting hollows are removed, often for firewood. These hollows can take decades to form and, due to clearing, there is now considerable competition for the limited hollows that remain. Species like the galah, western long-billed corella and European honeybee usually occupy hollows favoured by cockatoos.
What you can do to help
Find out if Carnaby's black cockatoos or other threatened wildlife live near you using WWF-Australia’s ‘My Backyard’ tool, and learn how you can help them thrive again.
