A yellow-tailed black cockatoo in Sydney’s Centennial Park. Photo: Peter Rae

Is there anyone who doesn’t appreciate the sight of a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (YTBC) flying overhead ? It seems that very little is really known about them and you can help to change that and potentially influence planning for their conservation.

Jessica Rooke is an Advanced Science (Biological Sciences) student at the University of New South Wales. She is currently undertaking Honours in Ecology with the Centre for Ecosystem Science, supervised by Professor Richard Kingsford, Dr John Martin and Dr Kate Brandis.

Jessica’s project focuses on the well known Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo. However, not many people know that this iconic species has been largely understudied, and is in significant decline. The project’s objectives are to investigate the species habitat, foraging and breeding ecology, with an overall aim of creating a management plan to help conserve the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo.

In particular, it would be helpful for you to report any sightings of YTBC (regardless of location) using the online survey which can be found on the Centre for Ecosystem Science website: (https://www.ecosystem.unsw.edu.au/content/conservation-practice/threatened-species/foraging-and-habitat-ecology-of-the-yellow-tailed-black-cockatoo). Further, if you know of any YTBC nesting sites in the Blue Mountains and wider areas that would be extremely useful to researchers investigating the breeding ecology.

If you have any further information, questions or queries, particularly regarding locations of breeding/nesting sites, please contact Jessica: j.rooke@student.unsw.edu.au

Banksia Park Bushcare volunteers recently observed some Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos boring into Tea trees, apparently to extract wood-boring invertebrates. The group had intentionally planted Hakeas and Banksias to provide a food source for them so we were pleasantly surprised that the Tea trees planted alongside were also providing food for the iconic species! Jessica advises that literature suggests that Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos increase this behaviour during breeding time, and when juveniles are fledging (around June-July, although this is based on limited studies, and is said to change across their range). If your groups has any similar observation, please take the time to record them and upload the data to the easy to use survey. The more we can contribute to these Citizen Science type projects, the more chances we’ll have to help protect the habitat of the species being studied.

You can read some more about Jessica’s research at: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/rare-birds-project-tracks-wild-yellowtailed-black-cockatoos-for-the-first-time-20160708-gq1axx.html