In western Victoria we are joined by a flock of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos and this gives us a chance to photograph them and just to sit among them.

Sitting silently in the Australian bush, then the unmistakable sound which identifies these animals, we are suddenly surrounded by them as they settle in the nearby trees to feed.

In the days when we had our large conservation property in Australia, as the evening descended, the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos would settle in the trees around our house. The Kangaroos in the garden, the pandemonium of parrots and the stars beginning to twinkle in the darkening sky. These were the things our many colleagues from around the world loved so much when they came to stay.

There are six Black Cockatoo species in Australia, including the tropical Palm Cockatoo from the northern section of Cape York (also New Guinea). These are:

• Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo;
• Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo;
• Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo;
• Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo;
• Glossy Black-Cockatoo; and
• Palm Cockatoo.

All Cockatoo species have similar problems in Australia, which of course include habitat destruction, including the resulting decline in suitable feeding sites and climate change.

Australian state governments have also not been immune to issuing large numbers of permits for their destruction. These birds breed in tree hollows and as more and more large and older trees in Australia vanish, nesting sites become increasingly harder to find. For these reasons, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo populations have declined ‘rapidly’ in Victoria. As with other Cockatoo species, longevity (40 to 60 years plus) masks the rate of decline.

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The estimated population for Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos in their range of south eastern Australia to central eastern Queensland is 25,000. The species is not listed as threatened. Curiously, Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo (south west Western Australia), is listed as endangered and the population estimate for this species is at 40,000 (probably too high). WWF suggest species decline is at 15 per cent per annum. WWF say this about Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo:

“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”.

In the period 2009 to 2021, the Victorian Government issued 11 permits to ‘control’ 649 Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos. The government in Victoria appears to have resisted the temptation of ‘controlling’ any in 2022, let’s see what 2023 brings. It remains extremely odd that the species is listed (IUCN) as least concern and Victoria has no listing, when the reality is we should all be very concerned. With their powerful beaks, what is evident is that these birds are not welcome in plantations and that may explain a deeper problem for the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo in Victoria.

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The South Australian Government, where the species is listed as vulnerable, do have a recovery plan for the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo on Eyre Peninsula. The species, according to the government, is geographically isolated from other populations in south eastern Australia including C. f. whitei populations on Kangaroo Island, Fleurieu Peninsula, south east South Australia and western Victoria and the Tasmanian population of C. f. xanthanotus.

For all Cockatoo species extant in Victoria, our figures show that since 2009, the Victorian Government has issued 754 permits to ‘control’ (many will have been for lethal control) 45,668 birds, include the Rose-breasted Cockatoo and these numbers rise to, permits 1,339 and birds 89,764 (not including other parrot species).

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