BirdLife Australia takes more action to save black-cockatoos

BirdLife Australia takes further action to save black-cockatoos

New partnership adds to our extensive list of actions

Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos, or Ngoolarks, have connected Noongar families for thousands of years, but with human pressures we are in danger of losing them forever.

BirdLife Australia is proud to partner with Murdoch University, with support from Lotterywest, to launch Keep Carnaby’s Flying – Ngoolarks Forever, a community empowerment program that will see researchers, Aboriginal organisations, other local governments, and conservation groups take action together to protect and preserve the endangered birds.

BirdLife Australia has, in conjunction with Murdoch’s Harry Butler Institute and Ngank Yira Institute for Change, has also partnered with the Winjan Bindjareb Boodja Rangers, Perth NRM, South East Regional Centre for Urban Landcare (SERCUL), Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, Landcare Serpentine-Jarrahdale, Urban Bushland Council of WA, Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Conservation Centre, and Curtin University’s Trace and Environmental DNA Laboratory.

The project is also collaborating with Perth Zoo and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, and the Town of Victoria Park.

By developing Conservation Action Plans with four local governments each year, the Keep Carnaby’s Flying – Ngoolarks Forever project will deliver a range of on-ground activities including revegetation, protection of foraging habitat, roosts and vegetation corridors, and the installation of water drinking stations. 

The first four councils to engage in the project are the City of Cockburn, City of Melville, Shire of Wanneroo, and Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale.

“BirdLife Australia has been working on the conservation of our south-western black-cockatoos for several decades,” said Merryn Pryor, BirdLife Australia’s WA Black-Cockatoo Coordinator, “and we’re proud to be a project partner in the Keep Carnaby’s Flying project alongside Murdoch University and other conservation and indigenous organisations.”

“We are very lucky in the Greater Perth Peel Region to share our urban landscapes with these large, charismatic birds,” Merryn said. “The Ngoolak, or Carnaby’s Black-cockatoo, captures the imagination of our local community in a way that few other animals do.”

“In this new project, BirdLife Australia is proud to have the role of being the public interface with the community, being able to foster this community interest firsthand.”

“The project provides a great opportunity to raise awareness of black-cockatoos and engage with the public about ways they can help Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos in their own backyards and communities, whether it be advice on what plants people can plant in their gardens to help create future foraging habitat for Carnaby’s, she said. “Or how people can report sightings of black-cockatoos that can provide meaningful data to help with our understanding of black-cockatoos and inform on-ground conservation, or how to empower people to advocate for the protection of important habitat for these endangered birds in their neighbourhoods.”

“So if you have any queries about black-cockatoos, go to the keepcarnabysflying.com.au website — we look forward to hearing from you and answering your questions.”

Working with four local governments each year, the project will support community-led on-ground activities including revegetation of black-cockatoo habitat and installation of water drinking stations, while developing black cockatoo Conservation Action Plans for councils to safeguard their flocks of black-cockatoos in the long term.

The first four councils to engage in the project are the City of Cockburn, City of Melville, City of Wanneroo, and Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale.

Project lead Professor Kris Warren, from Murdoch’s School of Veterinary Medicine and the Harry Butler Institute, said the aim was to provide simple, effective ways for communities to support the survival of the birds, which are in danger of extinction within decades.

“A major threat to Ngoolarks is the clearing of their foraging habitat, including in the Perth-Peel region,” Professor Warren said.

“Without more food, we are watching them slip into extinction”.

One of the project’s activities involves installing signs at native plant nurseries around Perth to encourage gardeners to plant cockatoo-friendly native plants, such as banksias, hakeas and marri, as well as non-native, high-energy macadamia trees, which can provide food for Ngoolarks in the short term as the native plants become established.

Nursery staff will also provide advice to gardeners, and the project’s website keepcarnabysflying.org.au has detailed information about what to plant, and what else people can do to help keep Perth’s Carnaby’s cockatoos flying.

Renowned botanist and Lotterywest board member Professor Kingsley Dixon said Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoos are now so desperate for food they are “eating themselves out of house and home”.

“We need to revegetate with native species, but also provide fast-growing food that has a high calorific and nutritional value like macadamias or almonds, as they are a quick maturing and useful early summer food source,” he said.

The project’s Cultural Engagement lead Barb Hostalek said Australian First Nations people have a deep respect and understanding for the complex interrelationships between land, sky and water, and the preservation of all life.

“Noongar people have watched the movement of the birds with the changing seasons, for generations their unmistakable call signalling the onset of rain on Noongar boodjar,” she said.

Professor Warren said connection with Noongar Elders and Traditional Custodians was vital to the success of the project.

“Holistic community action can help save Perth’s black-cockatoos — by working together we can make a tangible difference,” she said.