During the autumn-winter non-breeding season Baudin's Cockatoos use traditional roost sites and one of the largest of these at Araluen sometimes contains as many as 800 birds. Overall it is most numerous in the deep south-west during the spring breeding season, September-December and in the northern Darling Range during autumn April-August. Roleystone residents are indeed fortunate in having both of these endangered species as regular visitors to the neighbourhood.īaudin's Cockatoo breeds mainly in the Karri forest block in the deep south-west then migrates northwards between March and September to winter in the central and northern Darling Range including Chidlow, Mundaring, Araluen, Wungong Valley and the Serpentine-Jarrahdale area. The region is now a severely fragmented landscape and the loss of remnant vegetation, the lack of regeneration, the changing fire regimes, lack of suitable breeding sites, competition with exotic species and climate change all exacerbate the future conservation of cockatoos in this region. Since European settlement in Western Australia around 90% of the original vegetation in the south-west has been cleared for agriculture, cities and towns, mining and timber production. Direct causes of population decline include land clearing and fragmentation of habitat (especially in the Wheatbelt for Carnaby's Cockatoo), the loss of food trees and hollow-bearing trees (veteran and stag trees over 230 years of age), large numbers shot by orchardists (illegal shooting mainly with Baudin's Cockatoo) and the impact of hollow competitors including the Galah, corellas and the feral European honey bee. Baudin's Cockatoo has a long, narrow upper bill and makes a short "whicha-whicha" and "bunyip-bunyip" flock call whereas Carnaby's Cockatoo has a short, thick upper bill and has a longer "weeeloo-weeeloo" flock call.īoth species are listed as ‘Endangered' and both have suffered a substantial decline in numbers and breeding distribution in the past fifty years. Their bill size and shape and their different contact calls are the most reliable means of identification. The two species are very difficult to tell apart, especially in the Perth hills area where both species regularly occur and sometimes feed and roost close together. Carnaby's Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris was named in 1948 after Ivan Carnaby, a Western Australian naturalist. Baudin visited Western Australia in early 1801 and the type specimen probably came from the vicinity of Cape Naturaliste. They form a very conspicuous part of the avifauna, with their large flocks and their distinctive wailing calls.īaudin's Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus baudinii was named in honour of the French explorer Captain Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754-1803) by Edward Lear, an ornithologist and illustrator, at the British Museum in 1832. There are two species of white-tailed black cockatoo - Baudin's Cockatoo and Carnaby's Cockatoo - that are endemic to the south-west corner of Western Australia.
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