AUSTRALIAN COCKATOOS, PARROTS,and PARAKEETS WERE MY SPECIALITY WHEN I WAS A ZOOKEEPER
As you will see there are many very different species and many are facing problems.
Farmers forced to save cockatoo habitat
Farmers in Victoria’s West Wimmera are being asked to care for trees, especially large, hollow, dead trees.
Last month the Victorian Government took the controversial step of banning property owners in the area from removing any large hollow trees from their land.
But it is not the trees that need protecting but one of their inhabitants, the endangered red tail black cockatoo.
Endangered
At last count there were only somewhere between 650 and 1,000 red tails left in their original habitat in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.
Every year between March and September the female red tail begins her search for a place to build a nest, that is when she seeks out a large, dead, hollow tree, often a red gum, in which to lay a single egg.
Unfortunately for the red tail, farmers and other landholders see no value in dead trees, most of which are dead because of ring-barking practices of another era. Blue-gum plantations are transforming the landscape of western Victoria.
Study
Richard Hill and Tim Burnard work for the Federal Government group, Birds Australia and have spent a lot of time studying the red tail and its habits.
Their red tail black cockatoo recovery team is funded by the Natural Heritage Trust, state governments and even private enterprise.
The group’s aim is to identify the red tail’s breeding and eating habits, as well the birds’ daily and seasonal migration.
Once the data is collected, the group takes it to farmers and government bodies, hoping to get assistance in their fight against the birds’ extinction.
Mr Hill and Mr Burnard have learnt the red tail spends much of its day feeding itself, cracking the nuts from the stringy bark tree and removing the seed inside. As sun sets and the birds have had their fill they converge in squawking mobs on local water holes and stock troughs.
"We’re are asking farmers to look after the trees with big hollows in them because they not only provide nests for red tails but for a range of other birds and creatures in the area," Mr Hill said.
Action
It appears those pleas have been heard. In late February the Victorian Government put the ban on West Wimmera property owners removing any large and hollow trees from their land.
A rush of clearing that followed local shire council discussions on protection may have prompted the Government to act.
"Specifically they need to take care of dead trees with hollows in them, so if the trees don’t have a hollow we’re not interested and farmers can remove as normal," Dale Thompson of the West Wimmera Council said.
"But if it has a hollow then it’s important they consult with the Shire and we’ll inspect it and let them know it is a habitat for the red-tail cockatoo.
Meanwhile grazier Trevor Wardle has been protecting red tail habitat on his property for years.
"It’s such a shame to me that regulation is necessary for people to have a general empathy with their environment, but I guess there are the rogues at either end of the spectrum that do need some regulation," Mr Wardle said.
The West Wimmera Shire is not the only district to put protection in place for the red tail’s habitat, the adjoining Glenelg Shire has similar rules. The South Australian Government last year released a bio-diversity plan for the south east of the state in which the red-tail is the star attraction.
So there is hope that these measures and a growing awareness of the red tail’s plight will lead to its removal from the endangered list for good, but such an achievement is probably a decade away
SOME OTHER SPECIES
TANIMBAR COCKATOO
. 
GLOSSY BLACK
WHITE TAILED BLACK 
cockatoo feather
corella 
bare eyed 
citron
GALAH's or roseate 
GANG GANG'S
GANG GANG
GLOSSY BLACK 
GOFFINS
GOFFIN 
LITTLE CORELLA 
LONG BILLED CORELLA 
MAJOR MITCHELS
SULPHUR CRESTED
MOLOUCCAN 
NAKED NESTLING COCKATOO
PALM OR GOLIATH PALM 
SLENDER BILLED BLACK COCKATOO 
UMBRELLA
