Concern for Carnaby Cockatoos

by Ellen O'Brien 24 March, 2011

The City of Stirling is starting a conservation project that aims to raise the population of the Carnaby Cockatoo.

Jess Bridge, Environmental Officer, initiated the project in February and is calling on local volunteers to help her collect data in the Stirling Area.

Miss Bridge already has regional data from Birds Australia and The WA Museum, but says she needs to hone in on specific sites.

Volunteers need to record the time of the sighting, the location and the activity of the birds, all of which will help Miss Bridge carry out improvements to foraging and breeding habitats.

“I’m trying to fill in the gaps by getting the community involved and getting their observations.

"Once I get all the data back from this, I’ll be prioritising sites based on Carnaby behaviour,” said Miss Bridge.  

Miss Bridge needs the data to be as specific as possible.

“It’s no good someone telling me ‘I saw a Carnaby in the reserve'. Where in the reserve? I need to know what the vegetation type was, what the tree species was, down to that sort of detail,” said Miss Bridge.

Miss Bridge will be collecting data until the end of April, when the Carnaby Cockatoos return to the wheat belt region to breed. 

“This is prime time- when they’re feeding in the Perth area,” said Miss Bridge.

The decline of the Carnaby Cockatoo is largely due to loss of habitat, and in the Perth area lots of vegetation is being lost to residential development.

“That’s going to result in more decline in the species, but we are hoping to maintain what we have, and maybe boost numbers over time,” said Miss Bridge.

Clearing in the wheat belt region has made it difficult for Carnaby Cockatoos to reproduce.

“Carnabys are special- they need to have suitable foraging habitat within one kilometre of where they breed.

“Obviously that is not the case in the wheat belt, so we are noticing the population declining as a result of no younger individuals coming through,” said Miss Bridge.

Ted Hardey, a North Beach resident for more than 70 years, has noticed a marked decline in Carnaby numbers.

“When we first moved out here there weren’t many houses, behind us there was only bush and dairy farms.   

“They’d come in droves, and you could hear them squawking their heads off down in Star Swamp.

“The only place you see them now is up at Yanchep, and very occasionally I see one or two fly across the intersection of North Beach Road and Marmion Avenue.”

“There are historical records of the birds being in flocks that cover the sun,” said Miss Bridge.

Since those days the population has plummeted.

“The numbers are going down big time,” said Miss Bridge.

“To be considered an endangered population the numbers need to have declined by 50 per cent in 49 years.

"Now you only see flocks of 50 to 100, and sometimes you just see the three flying together,” said Miss Bridge.