May-Jun 2015, Volume 25 Issue 3

South-west Western Australia boasts three extraordinary black cockatoo taxa found nowhere else in the world. These are the distinctive short-billed Carnaby’s (Zanda latirostris) and the long-billed Baudin’s (Zanda baudinii) white-tailed cockatoos, and a subspecies of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo known as the Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii naso). These three species were once common in the south-west forests, however are now all threatened due to habitat loss, competition, and conflict with urban activities (i.e. vehicle strikes, poisoning) as the human population of Perth continues to expand.

I had kept birds as a young lad when I lived in Singleton but as I wandered about the country to various Army Bases, bird keeping became an almost forgotten memory. The interest for bird-keeping was reignited (after about eighteen years) when we bought our eldest son a pair of Peach faced Lovebirds for his 7th Birthday. Sol’s interest lasted a month or so and mine was inflamed to the point that ground floor of our Married Quarter soon had a variety of cages hanging off the breeze block walls. When I pulled the pin on twenty odd years service as a soldier, and built a house in (Lorikeet Street) Condon, Townsville, besides a pool for the kids, the side and backyard soon filled with an assortment of on-ground flights that housed first the Lovebirds and Budgies then gradually these were ousted by a growing collection of Neo’s and Grassies. A couple of years down the track and a few Rosella sub-specie took up residence, and while breeding success was only fair, the learning steepened with every passing year.

Only three species of parrots migrate across open water, and all of these migrate from mainland Australia to Tasmania to breed. Swift parrots (Lathamus discolor) and orange-bellied parrots (Neophema chrysogaster) breed exclusively in Tasmania, while for blue-winged parrots (Neophema chrysostoma) some breed in Tasmania and some on the Australian mainland. This migration appears to be problematic, as all three species are considered threatened in some, or all, jurisdictions in which they occur.