No uplisting for Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo

WA Government rejects BirdLife nomination

Despite the IUCN, BirdLife International and the Action Plan for Australian Birds all recognising Western Australia’s Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo as being a Critically Endangered species, the Western Australian Government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has rejected a nomination from BirdLife to uplist its conservation status from Endangered.

BirdLife Australia formally nominated the species to be uplisted in 2023. This nomination was on the basis of research which shows the species’ population has declined by 90 per cent in the last 40 years, leaving as few as 2500 birds surviving in an ever-contracting range. In light of this information, uplisting looked to be on the cards when the submission was made.

Nevertheless, the Threatened Species Scientific Committee has now, for a second time, declined to take any action, citing a lack of information.

“The birds will vanish while the government argues over data,” said Dr Mark Henryon, from BirdLife WA. “If the system won’t act now, what’s it waiting for—zero birds left?”

“If the government proceeds with business as usual,” added Viv Read, also from BirdLife WA, “the Baudin’s [Black-Cockatoo] will be functionally extinct in 50 years… it will not exist in its own environment.”

With a population that is in such rapid decline, hopes of a recovery without positive action from the government are slim, especially in light of the species’ slow breeding rates and its sensitivity to disturbance, such as the fragmentation and destruction of its forest habitats by mining operations, as well as a lack of success in adequately revegetating areas that have already been cleared.

“Baudin’s [Black-Cockatoo] is a shadow species that is slipping into the dark.”