Great Cocky Count Resources

Southwest Western Australia is home to three different species of black-cockatoo – Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and Forest Red-tailed.

Carnaby’s and Baudin’s are both white-tailed black-cockatoos and the Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo has a red tail as the name suggests. While red-tailed and white-tailed black-cockatoos are reasonably easy to tell apart by both appearance and call, the two species of white-tailed black-cockatoos are much harder to distinguish between.

During the Great Cocky Count you are not required to differentiate between Carnaby’s and Baudin’s, which can be recorded collectively as White-tailed Black-Cockatoos. However, you do need to be able to differentiate between the Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos and White-tailed Black-Cockatoos.

Identifying Southwest Black-Cockatoos Guide
This brochure will help you to recognise the differences between Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos and White-tailed Black-Cockatoos.

Southwest Black-Cockatoo Species Profiles
BirdLife Australia also has profile pages for the three species of southwest black-cockatoos on our website. This includes audio of their distinctive calls. We encourage participants to familiarise themselves with the different calls as this is a great way to distinguish between Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos and White-tailed Black-Cockatoos. This is useful if the birds are flying in from a distance or in poor lighting when it is hard to see the tail feathers and other distinguishing features. Click on the links below to help familiarise yourself with the three different species and listen to the audio of their calls.

Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo

Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo

Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo

Learning about southwest WA black-cockatoos video
You can also learn more about the identification of black-cockatoos, as well as their biology, ecology and habitat by watching this recorded video of a past workshop.

Follow these simple instructions and steps to make your survey count!

Do a pre-GCC practice count in the week before the Great Cocky Count
If you have the time, we encourage you to visit your allocated site and do a practice count before Great Cocky Count night. This allows you to familiarise yourself with the site and the time it will take to get there, identify the trees the cockatoos are likely to use and pick out a good vantage point for observing them as they fly in. Having this knowledge can help ensure everything runs smoothly for the GCC.

Count the black-cockatoos as they fly across the sky into their roost sites
It is much easier to get an accurate count of birds as they are flying across the sky than it is when they have already landed in a roost tree and are hidden by foliage. Once you have identified which trees the cockatoos are flying towards, set yourself up with a good vantage point to count them in flight. If cockatoos have already arrived at the roost by the time you arrive, do your best to get an accurate count of them and include this in your overall count, provided that they remain there for the duration of the survey.

How to get the most accurate count
Counting birds as they pass quickly on the wing, especially large flocks, can be daunting. Here are some methods to help you get the most accurate stress-free count.

• Count the birds as they fly past a certain point, landmark (e.g. a power pole). Using a fixed point in the land scape makes it easier to count them as they are moving. It is easy to get overwhelmed trying to count a moving flock with no point of reference.
• Count the birds using block counting, such as in the example below. Count the number of birds in a given area or “block” and then estimate the number of blocks in the flock. This method is useful to get quick but relatively accurate estimates of bird numbers, particularly for larger flock sizes.
  
• Take a photo or footage of the flock and count the birds from the image/video. The photos don’t have to be perfect – just good enough to be able to roughly count the individual cockatoos.

Only count cockatoos that land and stay in the trees at your roost site
To avoid double counting at different roost sites we ask that you only count the birds that land at your roost site and remain there until the end of the survey. Do not include birds that fly over or past your roost site in your tally. These birds are likely heading to another roost site where they will be counted by someone else. However, it is handy to make a note of these flocks in the comments section of your survey sheet or birdata form, including the time they flew past and the direction in which they are heading. This way we can check whether they correspond with any other roost counts in the area.

If cockatoos come in and land at your roost site, but then leave before the survey is finished, please subtract them from your tally. We only want the total number of birds remaining at your roost site after dark at the end of your survey. One way to record this in your tally is to use a negative sign to remind you to subtract this from your total tally at the end (e.g. 5, 10, 3, 2, 6, -13, 4 = 17 total). As mentioned above, it can be useful to note the time any birds leave and the direction they are headed in the comments section of your survey form.

Tally black-cockatoos flying in to roost in their flock sizes
When you have small flocks flying in, record them as they fly in to roost in their group sizes (e.g. 5, 10, 3, 2, 6, -13, 4). This can provide important data about the success of the last breeding season. It is generally accepted that a pair of birds flying in together will be a male/female pair, whereas a flock of three birds will likely be a male/female pair with their offspring from the previous breeding season. By looking at the ratio of the pairs to the flocks of three, we can draw some conclusions about the breeding success of the last season. A higher number of pairs to threes could indicate a poor breeding season, whereas a higher number of threes to pairs could indicate a good/successful breeding season.

Count all birds within your buffer zone
It is important to note that the black-cockatoos may not roost at the exact point on the map you are given. All roosts have buffers around them. For small roosts (< 150 birds) the buffer zone is 500m; for large roosts (>=150 birds) the buffer zone is 1km (the buffer size will be specified in your site details). This means that any cockies that roost within 500m or 1km of the given GPS point are in YOUR roost. Therefore, if you see or hear cockies in the vicinity please try to find and count them. Use your ears and follow the sounds of cockies. If there are other roosts nearby which overlap with your buffer zone we will let you know so you can avoid double counting and encroaching on these roost sites.

Counts of zero birds are just as important as positive counts!
Unfortunately, some roost sites will record zero black-cockatoos roosting on the night of the Great Cocky Count. This is mainly because black-cockatoos can use several different roost sites in the same area, however it is impossible to know which one they will choose to roost at on the night. While we understand this can be disappointing, it is important to remember that zero is still a very important result in science. All surveys contribute to giving us the most up to date information about the distribution and approximate population sizes. So please don’t be discouraged if you don’t record any black-cockatoos on the night. Your data is just as important as everyone else’s!

Have a fun and enjoyable night
By following these tips to counting Black-Cockatoos we hope you have a stress-free and enjoyable evening. Some people like making a night of it by taking a picnic or sharing nibbles with friends. Whatever you choose to do we hope you have a great evening while gathering important data about our threatened Black-Cockatoos.

Black-Cockatoos generally roost overnight in the taller trees within the landscape, such as Marri, eucalyptus or pine trees. They show a certain degree of fidelity to their overnight roost sites, often returning to the same sites on consecutive nights and at the same times each year. This behaviour was used in creating the methodology for the Great Cocky Count, as counting the birds as they fly in to known roost sites gives us a snapshot of black-cockatoo populations across the southwest on a single night.

To get the most comprehensive count we need to cover as many roost sites as possible. While we have identified hundreds of roost sites over the years, it is assumed there are many more we don’t know about, especially in regional areas. In addition, roost sites may change over time due to factors such as land clearing and varying quality or availability of nearby water and foraging habitat. Important information on the location of critical roosting habitat is collected through the Great Cocky Count each year.

In the lead up to the Great Cocky Count each year we ask people to report suspected overnight roost sites so that they can be included and counted on the night.

To locate, identify and/or confirm night roosts follow these tips:

• Keep an eye out for black-cockatoos around sunset
• Follow their direction of flight if possible and watch for birds landing in trees or listen for calling birds
• If birds are feeding they are probably not at their night roost yet and will move on as they often keep their roosting and foraging habitats separate
• Look for signs on the ground below trees such as droppings and feathers (however a lack of droppings and feathers does not mean that it isn’t a roost site)
• It can take repeated visits and observations to locate a black-cockatoo roost
• If the birds land in the trees and remain there until at least half an hour after dark they will likely stay overnight, meaning this is confirmation of a night roost.

The last point is very important. We get numerous reports of roosts, but on further investigation many turn out to be day roosts and the cockatoos aren’t roosting overnight. So please check to make sure the black-cockatoos are staying at the roost overnight before reporting it to us.

If you know about a night-time roost site, please email us with the details on greatcockycount@birdlife.org.au. When reporting a roost site please tell us whether the black-cockatoos are white-tailed or red-tailed, the approximate number roosting and include a GPS point, map link or detailed description of the location.