Glossy Black Cockatoos

Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) - male

Beautiful Glossy Black Cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami) - some interesting information and stunning photos from Dr Mark Simpson, Veterinarian, Scientist, passionate natural historian and Wandiyali Restoration Trust board member.

"Allocasuarinas, which are often known as sheoaks, are an important sub-storey tree in much of the forests of south-eastern Australia. They have many desirable characteristics which assist in stabilising natural environments. They burn in fires, but are able to regenerate from subterranean roots with rapid growth of new shoot. But it may take some time for these plants to reach reproductive age. And if the fires are intense then roots can be killed and seed reservoirs in the leaf litter may mean that it many years before allocasurina are flowering and fruiting again. 

This is currently a critical problem for the Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) as a result of the horrendous bush fires around Christmas time. Glossies are Allocasuarina & Casuarina specialists, feeding virtually exclusively on their seeds, supplemented with borers that eat the timber. The fire was an acute issue for the isolated population on Kangaroo Island, but now it is becoming more obvious that the more widespread south-eastern Australian population is also being affected as small groups show up in unusual locations to feed on Allocasuarina that have never seen Glossies. 

In many locations around the Hunter Valley for example there are Glossies where they have never previously been recorded. Some birds are even turning up in suburban Allocasuarina plantings. And even where there were local populations, these have grown as birds likely displaced from the huge Gospers Mountain bushfire (which burned out more than half a million hectares of bushland) searched far and wide for their very specific food.

Since Glossies do not adapt to food other than Allocasuarina seeds, the loss of fruit from these trees is going to have a direct effect on their ability to survive for the next few years. This makes plantings such as the Wandiyali Drooping She-Oak (Allocasuarina verticillata) Project critically important not just as part of the ecosystem in general, but as a specific resource for this, the smallest and most specialised of the Australian Black Cockatoos."

Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) - female

Glossy Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) - females