Birds starved to death

Black Cockatoo Rehabilitation and Rescue Centre general manger Chris Phillips tends to injured birds. THE Black Cockatoo Rehabilitation and Rescue Centre put down a starving Carnaby cockatoo last month.

General manager Chris Phillips said this death was a sign of the growing pressure on the endangered species.

“We are seeing birds come in here that are starving to death,” he said.

Mr Phillips said the birds’ natural food sources and nesting trees were being destroyed, threatening the ongoing survival of a species only found in the South-West.

“Habitat destruction of bushland in the metropolitan area is a key threat to the survival of this species, who are finding it hard to get enough food,” he said.

Mr Phillips said the birds migrated from the Wheatbelt, where they nested near food sources found in banksia bushland.

The centre cares for about 150 birds and has taken in as many as 600 over the past three years.

Mr Phillips said about a third of the birds cared for at the centre were returned to the wild, while others were nurtured back to health to become part of the centre’s new breeding program.

“We have a partnership with Perth Zoo,” he said. “The birds go there for specialist veterinary care, then they come here to our intensive care unit,” he said.

“Once they have recovered we decide if they are candidates for release or they become part of our walking wounded.

“It is these birds we will be using for our breeding program.”