No, I haven't really gone all mystical since last year, but there is something truly thrilling about a flight of massive black-cockatoos rowing easily across the sky, their creaking wailing calls drifting down as they pass over. This is a uniquely Australian experience, as the five species all evolved here and are found nowhere else.
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos Zanda funerea, part of a large flock flying over Lower Glenelg NP, far western Victoria, under a leaden sky. |
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo landing, Bourke, New South Wales, and giving a slightly better view of the lovely tail panels. |
We have now met the two genera, Zanda (with yellow or white highlights) and Calyptorhynchus (with red or orange panels). For most of their taxonomic history they have all been included in Calyptorhynchus, a name applied by the French zoologist Anselme Desmarest in 1826. It means 'covered bill' (ie the base of it, by feathers), and while true it is certainly not unique. In 1913 the somewhat erratic but highly productive Gregory Mathews, a wealthy Australian working from England, separated out the 'yellow and white' black-cockatoos and called them Zanda. Characteristically he didn't see a need to explain the name, and it might have been inspired by an Indigenous name (though probably not, as he also used it as a subspecies name for several unrelated birds) or he might simply have made it up - he had form. Also typically it didn't take on, until within the past decade when based on plumage characters (coloured bars and speckles on the 'red' females, but not the 'whites and yellows') and significant differences in begging calls of young birds, it was resurrected.
Black-cockies are found throughout much of the continent except for the deep deserts, though Red-tails are found well inland where there is water. They alone are found scattered in separate populations in every Australian mainland state and the Northern Territory. Yellow-tails are found in a broad hinterland band from Eyre Peninsula in South Australia to Tasmania and the southern tropics in Queensland. They are the most familiar ones to most people, living in the heavily populated south-east. They're not typically suburban birds, though they're quite common in Canberra and are regular in and over the suburbs. Luckily for us they love the big bankia which overhangs our balcony and they drop by from time to time to sample the seeds ripening in the tough cones.
Female Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo in Silver Banksia, suburban Duffy, Canberra. (She has a white bill and brown eye rings.) |
Male Glossy Black-Cockatoo eating casuarina cones, Bawley Point, south coast New South Wales. He has a dark bill and plain head. |
While on the topics of myths around black-cockatoos, a favourite is that they are bringers of rain. Undoubtedly the two coincide on occasions, but they also turn up here regularly during drought and many a rainstorm is unheralded by cockies (or any other birds known as 'rain birds'). It's a curious one and its adherents cheerfully brush such objections aside. I admire their faith.
In the south-west of the continent are two species of white-tailed black-cockatoos, which apparently arose in wetter times when yellow-tails were able to cross from the east before the arid Nullarbor Plains closed the access. This has happened more than once and presumably the two white-tailed species arose from separate crossings, the second after the first had been there long enough to evolve into a separate species and unable to breed with their now distant relations. They are quite similar and the differences weren't recognised for a long time, until 1948 in fact. The key difference is in the beaks, which relate, naturally, to their diets. For a while they were known, logically to most of us, as Short-billed and Long-billed White-Cockatoos but (unfortunately for those of us who aren't keen on lumbering unsupecting animals with human names) they are now known as Baudin's Black-Cockatoo Zanda baudinii and Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo Z. latirostris. Both species are listed as Endangered
A female (white bill, large cheek patch), part of the same flock. |
As well as the coastal heaths (kwongan) Carnaby's are found inland in Wandoo woodlands where there is an understorey of Banksias and related woody-seeded shrubs. They are named as a tribute to West Australian entomologist and jewel beetle expert Keith Carnaby, who recognised that two white cockatoos are present and published it in 1948.
The 'other' species, Baudin's Black-Cockatoo, is taken from the species name, which in turn is for the French naval officer Nicholas Baudin who commanded the great scientific expedition to Australia from 1800 to 1803. By all accounts he was appallingly rude and unsympathetic to the needs of the scientists who were the point of the whole exercise, but I also note that he died on the way home and history tends to be written by the survivors.
It's a pity I can't show you the bill in more detail, because it's very specialised. Like other black-cockies the top bill is very mobile, hinged to allow greater movement than that of most birds, to allow delicate grasping and great pressure to be applied. However it is also very long and slender to enable the extraction of seeds from the large woody fruit of Marri Corymbia (or Eucalyptus) calophylla, a common tree of the south-western forests and moister woodland.
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo dining in town on White Cedar fruits, Bourke. |
Blackbutt Eucalyptus pilularis excavated by a Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Ulladulla, south coast NSW. |
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo working on an Acacia stem, Murramarang NP. The holes by his left foot may be exploratory, or there may have been more than one grub present. |
Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo female (but you knew that!) just outside my study window, snacking on banksia seeds and discarding the rest. I don't mind cleaning up after her.. |
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2 comments:
Always enjoy your emails. Todays about the Black cockatoo was very fascinating. We live on 6ac in Korumburra South and the small stand of B integrifolia and B marginata and the B prionotes we have,this year, become a place for a family of yellow/white tailed black cockies to visit. The trees are big enough to cope with the damage. With my amateur eyes I thought it was a visiting male and female and juvenile. hope they return next year too. cheers Diane
Hello Diane. Sorry I didn't notice this earlier - hope you find my reply. I confess I had to look up Korumburra. Interesting that you're growing B prionotes successfully there, it's a delight. Yes, they've all evolved with cocky chewing, so can easily cope with some. I think too that sometimes they fly off with a whole cone, dropping the leftovers somewhere else - they certainly do that with pine cones. And once they've found a good source they're smart enough to come back next year too! Thanks for commenting, cheers, Ian
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