Piercing karak squawking
And a brilliant flash of red
And the marri nuts are falling
From the branches overhead
Red and black and welcome
They have travelled far from south
Seeking remnant marri
To feed their hungry mouths
Returning to the Moondyne
After many years
Forced to travel further
As their food source disappears
And a brilliant flash of red
And the marri nuts are falling
From the branches overhead
Red and black and welcome
They have travelled far from south
Seeking remnant marri
To feed their hungry mouths
Returning to the Moondyne
After many years
Forced to travel further
As their food source disappears
It’s been years since the Red-tailed Black Cockatoos were in
the Moondyne and this year they are everywhere. When I first saw the falling
marri nuts and the brilliant red flash of the spreading tail feathers I could
scarcely believe it. But there they were in their hundreds, feasting on the
marri nuts, while the forest rang with their piercing shrieks. But why are they
back after all this time? This was the edge of their range 100 years ago but they
have been gone for decades. As their once great population fell due to habitat
loss to agriculture they retreated to their forest heartland far to the south
and were rarely seen in their former haunts. But now they are back and amidst the thrill of
seeing them is a deep sense of foreboding. Something has changed!
There are five sub-species of Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos in
Australia. The Forest Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) is found in the
southwest corner of Western Australia between Perth and Albany and is classified
as Near Threatened. It can be differentiated from the other sub-species by its
large bill which is useful for getting seed out of the woody nuts of the Marri
(Corymbia calophylla) which is its favorite food. The population of this sub-species, similar to
other sub-species of Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos, continues to fall. It’s return
to the margins of its ancient haunts can only mean that conditions in the
heartland have become more difficult or conditions in the margins more
favorable. Hopefully it is the latter and there is certainly a bumper crop of
Marri seed this year. The other thing that is odd is that Carnaby’s White-tailed
Black Cockatoo ,which are generally on our property at this time of year, are
nowhere to be seen. So we have a great cocky mystery. The Red-tails are here
and the White-tails are somewhere else. Hopefully
they are all happy where-ever they are. And while I love to see them I can’t
help hoping that the patterns soon return to normal. Major shifts in long-term population
distributions are rarely a good thing and it looks to me that something at the
moment is out of balance. 
