Endangered Baudin’s Cockatoos
Last year, we had a lot of black cockatoos on the property, but I couldn’t tell if they were short billed Carnaby or long billed Baudin’s black cockatoos. We had a large flock of about 50 on the property this morning eating the seeds on the Marri trees and I was able to get some reasonable photos which clearly show that they are the endangered Baudins. These birds are found only in the Southwest of Australia and nowhere else in the world. The total population is estimated at around 12,000 and is listed in the IUCN Red List as Endangered.
In the State they are listed Endangered- Schedule 1, ‘rare or likely
to become extinct’ under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 (Edwards 2005)
Nationally, they are listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Internationally they are listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Fauna and Flora (CITES 2005).
The feathers are brown and black, but edged with dusky white giving them a scalloped appearance. They have white patches on ears and a white band towards tip of tail. The male’s bill is black and he has pink round his eyes, the female has a pale grey bill and dark eyes.
They make a strange moaning, croaking sound when they are eating, and there was quite a cacophony. They weren’t disturbed by my presence, possibly because the guinea fowl were happily pecking round my feet. Even the dog didn’t bother them, they just kept croaking and eating and dropping the empty nut shells to the ground. They have a harsh shriek if alarmed and a high pitched warbling cry when in flight. Normally they are wary and difficult to approach as sentinel birds alert the flock. They can live up to 45 years and pair bond for life.
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