Black birds with bright behaviours

There’s something reassuringly Australian about seeing and hearing a flock of black-cockatoos winging their way overhead.

STRIPPING EUCALYPT bark to search for food, chomping on large gumnuts and screeching loudly as they fly by, black-cockatoos have some of the most distinctive behaviours of any of our birds.

Australia is home to five species of these charismatic creatures – Baudin’s, and Carnaby’s, both of which are listed nationally as endangered, and the red-tailed, yellow-tailed and glossy. Baudin’s, like all of these cockatoos, is a large species – up to 57cm long. Found only in a small area of jarrah and marri forest in south-west Western Australia, it has the most restricted distribution of all the black-cockatoos.

Carnaby’s occurs in the same area but its range extends slightly further.

It’s known as the ‘rain bird’ because it migrates to higher rainfall areas after summertime breeding. Both Carnaby’s and Baudin’s are similar in appearance, being black all over with white head and tail feathers.

More brightly coloured and with a wider and more east coast distribution is the yellow-tailed black-cockatoo. Harder to tell apart are the red-tailed black-cockatoo and glossy blackcockatoo because both sport a fiery red tail and yellow spots.The glossy, however, has yellow splotches on its head rather than the tiny yellow dots of the red-tailed. A subspecies of the red-tailed known as the forest red-tailed black-cockatoo ( Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) has, in recent years, adapted to urban life and taken up residency in the metropolitan areas of Perth.

As well as their fabulous plumage, black-cockatoos are renowned for their boisterous personalities.They’ve been observed stealing each other’s nuts and arguing loudly. But they also display more sophisticated behaviours.

They have elaborate courtship rituals and mates can often be seen gently preening each other.

All black-cockatoo species face threats, including habitat loss and degradation, collection for the illegal wildlife trade and car strikes.

But survival is also often affected by their highly specialised diets.

The glossy black-cockatoo, for example, relies on just a few species of she-oak for food.To find out how you can help the glossy black-cockatoo, see our latest fundraiser on page 31.