Black Cockatoos
We are very lucky in Western Australia to have three species of black cockatoo. All three occur nowhere else in the world.
They are the Red-tailed, Baudin’s and Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos.
I’ve written before about some of the competitors that make life hard for these birds. The Corellas, Galahs, feral bees and the Rainbow Lorikeets. Each of these fellow creatures compete for coveted nesting sites, hollows in old trees.
And then there is their other problem – us. Or at least, some of us, and the never ending urge to bulldoze the bush so we can build more houses.
Luckily there are the some people who are doing all they can to help the black cockatoos. These are the guys and girls down at Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Recovery Centre.
Their mission is threefold. They care for sick and injured birds, nursing them to health and re-releasing where possible; They work to improve and preserve cockatoo habitat, increasing the chances of the birds in the wild to survive, and maybe one day thrive again; and they educate the public about the birds.
Many people in Perth are probably just like me a year ago – completely ignorant of the fact that two out of these three endemic species are threatened. When you see the cockatoos they are commonly in large flocks. Sadly many of the birds in these flocks are past their breeding age so their numbers are deceiving.
I was lucky enough to go to visit Kaarakin at their Open Day yesterday. They are located in Martin, south east of Perth city. It’s an easy drive down Tonkin Hwy on the weekend. Some of you might remember the site, as I did, as the old home of the old Cohunu Wildlife Park. In fact many of the old cages and structures have been left as reminders of a past we would like to think behind us. I might write more about the former and current Cohunu establishments some other time…
The birds in residence move between a series of aviaries during their stay at Kaarakin. There are the hospital enclosures where they care for the sick and injured and nestlings that have been rescued. There is a 60m long pre-release aviary where birds build up their flight muscles before being returned to the wild.
There are aviaries for those birds that aren’t able to be released. Some, like Chasey, make the move into education and travel around to schools and other events to teach people about cockatoos. And now there is the new walk-in interactive aviary where carefully watched members of the public can meet and greet these amazing, smart and charismatic birds.
The birds we met were happy to eat seed from the hand and perch on hands and shoulders. The carers feed the birds in a variety of ways to make sure they are mentally stimulated. Cockatoos have well developed brains, which is quite apparent when you look one in the eye.
And they are beautiful. The sunset colours of the red tailed black cockatoo tail feathers is quite simply stunning.
Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo
Unlike the poorly named Pacific Black Duck, the name of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is dead on. Sunset tail would have been accurate too.
They also have the most beautiful spots.
Baudin’s and Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos
Carnaby’s and Baudin’s Balck-Cockatoos look very similar. If I try to identify them here I will probably get it wrong.
Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo has a finer bill, which I think this female with her tongue sticking out demonstrates beautifully.
The red around the eyes indicates it is breeding season.
The Carnaby’s have a shorter bill, but still have the white cheeks.
The males
have black beaks, the females white, but this does not become clear
until the bird reaches maturity.
All of those beaks are well suited to stripping gumnuts.
More information
If you’d like to learn more about these amazing birds, and I hope you do, a great starting point is the Kaarakin facebook page. They are always looking for volunteers, and people to spread the word.
http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/red-tailed-black-cockatoo
http://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/carnabys-black-cockatoo
