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Hot young chicks or Ugly Ducklings?

Aren't the yellow down feathers just gorgeous? It's amazing to think that the young cockatoos can go from this...

... to this. And all within a few weeks! Isn't the colour on this chicks cheeks incredible!

They’re young, they’re still single and their parents aren’t at home during the day.

We’re speaking about the critically endangered Yellow Tail Black Cockatoo chicks of Eyre Peninsula.

Have you ever seen one?

You would remember their yellow markings on their tail feathers and cheek patches.

On the East coast of Australia, their numbers are plentiful, but on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, there are less than 40 of these birds left.

While the birds spend the cooler months of the year around the Venus Bay district, they go south to breed in the Koppio hills during the warmer months.

Just recently, it was banding day for the young chicks – where the young birds get what looks like a toe ring, put around one of their legs. This helps those studying the flock, by make identification of the different birds easier.

West Coast field reporters went out into the Koppio Hills with the cockatoo monitoring team, the Yellow tailed black cockatoo officer for the West region; ecologist of threatened Fauna for the Department of Environment and Heritage; and the casual worker for the department of E & H in monitoring the cockatoos.

Yellow tailed black cockatoos traditionally nest in sugar gum hollows (note: the sugar gum is also known as Eucalyptus cladocalyx, although this year, two pair of cockatoos chose to nest in the supplementary poly pipe nests that the Green-corps put up in the sugar gums a few years ago.

These ‘fake’ nests give the birds a wider variety of nesting sites, because the nests are a limited resource at the moment, due to habitat clearance, general deterioration, and also because the hollows are sometimes used as a hive by bees.

While the bees are classed more as a pest than a predator to the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo, there are predators in the environment.

“They’re very vulnerable to foxes and cats while they’re feeding low on the Hakeas on the ground. They also can sometimes be taken by raptors, such as Wedge tailed Eagles, or Hawks…

“The eggs (can) also be predated on by Brush tailed possum, which shares the sugar gum habitat.”

Photo Above: Brush tailed possum

The reason for the trip into the Koppio Hills, as mentioned above, was to band the chicks to make identification of the birds easier in the future. As there are currently around 34 cockatoos in the flock, identification isn’t as difficult as it could be, but the bands make it far easier.

The importance of banding.

“The banding is really important to track the nestlings that do fledge so that we can keep records of where they are when they go up to the Northern wintering habitats, up in the Northern Eyre Peninsula, and generally to just keep a track on them and see how they’re faring in that really critical first year after they leave the nest.

“And of course to keep track of them in future years as well, to see if they start breeding, and to see where their nest tree is in relation to where we knew that they fledged from, so that’s a really interesting dynamic to keep a track on as well.”

A reason for the low numbers of cockatoos in the region can be linked with the chick mortality rate.

While out doing the banding, the group came across; one chick that had died in the nest, possibly due to the extreme heat (above 40 degrees) experienced on one day; and also another egg that hadn’t developed a ‘foetus’ or chick inside.

'In terms of chick mortality, we don’t really have the percentages yet, but we generally loose two to three birds from the adult or general population (each year), but in terms of chick mortality, we’ve already lost one chick and two eggs have failed'.

So we started off with eight nesting attempts and that’s been reduced to five… In a secure location that’s a natural mortality…it’s just a lot more pronounced when you’re down to 30-34 birds.”

According to an information sheet on the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo put out by Ark on Eyre, the cockatoos once flew in large flocks, and in the 1930’s, 100 individual birds were recorded feeding between the Koppio Hills and Marble Range. Although in June 2001, there were only 29 birds remaining in the wild.

The main factors believed to be contributing factors for the population decline include, loss of nesting hollows and food plants by the clearing and grazing of sugar gum woodlands for farming, firewood collection, and feral honey bees occupying hollows.

What hurdles will the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo have to navigate in order to survive?

“If the numbers are increasing, we need to ensure that their critical habitat still remains, to actually support the increasing population. So that means securing nesting habitat, like the sugar gum wood hollows, and maybe sussing out areas where we can put up supplementary sites. And also secure their main food trees.”

Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos feed on borers found in gums and sheoaks, grubs in grass trees like the Yacka, seeds of hakea and introduced pine trees like the Aleppo, as well as pods of wattle trees (acacias).

23 February 2004

Above: Hakea & Wattle

Visit the following link and find out what is happening in Tasmania, and sign to send your view to Japansese paper manufacturers about their involvement in being the largest purchaser of wood chips from these spectacular trees.

Tasmania's Valley of the Giants

The Styx contains large areas of unlogged tall Eucalyptus Obliqua, Eucalyptus Delegatensis and rainforest.

Together these make up one of the most spectacular forests in the world. These forests are home to many native species of wildlife, including the majestic Wedge-tailed Eagle, the Eastern Pygmy Possum, the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo, owls and rosellas.

text/photos of YTB hot young chicks only ©http://www.abc.net.au/sa/stories