Carnabys Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris
Length 54–56 cm; wingspan c. 110 cm; weight c. 650 g.
Often recorded in flocks of three or four, and occasionally in large flocks of up to hundreds during non-breeding season, the gregarious Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo is active, noisy and occasionally conspicuous, though adults are usually quiet when feeding. The species mainly eats seeds and usually forages in trees (especially large-fruiting eucalypts or exotic pines) or shrubs (particularly proteaceous ones, such as Banksia, Dryandra, Grevillea, Hakea, as well as the introduced wild geranium Erodium), though they may feed on the ground on fallen fruit and seeds. Their usual flight is buoyant and majestic, with slow, deep and powerful wing-beats interspersed with lazy drifting glides, though, when disturbed in the forest, the flight is quick and agile, with birds twisting and turning between the trees.
HABITAT
Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos usually breed in uncleared or remnant eucalypt woodlands, especially those dominated by Salmon Gum Eucalyptus salmonophloia or Wandoo E. wandoo, and also occasionally Tuart E. gomphocephala, and it may occasionally breed in Jarrah E. marginata–Marri Corymbia calophylla forests. It requires trees that are old enough to have developed large hollows that are suitable for nesting. During the non-breeding season, many Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos occur in proteaceous shrubland or kwongan heathland dominated by hakeas, dryandras, banksias and grevilleas, and the species is also often recorded in plantations of exotic pines outside the breeding season.
DISTRIBUTION
Endemic to south-western Western Australia, especially the Wheatbelt region.
STATUS
- Rare in Western Australia
- Endangered in EPBC Act
THREATS
The species is threatened by loss, fragmentation and degradation of its feeding and breeding habitats through clearance for agriculture. This is exacerbated by a lack of regeneration because of grazing by sheep and other livestock, as well as rabbits. In addition, the loss of old, hollow-bearing trees that are suitable as breeding sites is a concern. The maturation of plantations of exotic pines, which provide a valuable food source during the non-breeding period, they are due to be harvested, thus leaving a possible food shortage.
MOVEMENTS
Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo is partly resident and partly migratory: it is resident in high-rainfall areas that retain much native vegetation; and a breeding visitor to drier regions or where most native vegetation has been cleared. Populations that breed in drier regions arrive there in late winter and spring, and once summer breeding is complete, they form flocks which move into areas of higher rainfall, especially coastal and near-coastal areas. Others vacate breeding sites after breeding has finished, dispersing into surrounding areas, where they wander locally between January and July.
For more information visit the Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Recovery Project page.
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