Cocky count spots record number
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 23:25 
Record number of red-tailed black cockatoos counted. Image by Bill & Mark BellA record number of red-tailed black cockatoos, almost 1,500, were spotted in an annual count of the species.
The survey coordinator, Bronwyn Perryman, says it is a vast improvement on the low number of cockatoos that have been spotted in the past three counts.
The event is conducted across south-eastern South Australia and western Victoria every May.
Ms Perryman says the record shows there is still a strong population of the cockatoos across the region.
"We are slightly up by 64 birds on our previous high tally of 1,468," she said.
"[We're] ecstatic, it's really encouraging because for the last three years we've had really low counts, less than 850 birds counted.
"It's been [a] hugely successful count with the highest number of birds recorded since we first commenced counting in 1996."