Rare Carnaby's cockatoo lets chicks starve
Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 2:30 
A Carnaby's cockatoo gets stuck into some bush tucker. Photo: Rakia StokellIf you're unfortunate enough to be the second chick born to a pair of endangered Carnaby's cockatoos, chances are you won't live longer than a few days.
Breeding from August to November, Carnaby's cockatoos - which are also known as white-tailed black cockatoos or "rainbirds" because their autumn fly-past heralds Perth's wet season – nest in tree hollows in open wandoo forest of the northern Darling Range and inner wheatbelt.
There the female lays two eggs – sometimes as much as 16 days apart – and the male returns every morning and evening, entering the nesting hollow tail-first to feed her while she incubates the clutch.
Usually both eggs hatch, but the second nestling, which is always smaller, normally dies within 48 hours, unless some misfortune befalls its older sibling.
When the surviving fledgling matures, it and its parents join other birds from the same area and move towards the coast and suburbs, where the flock spends the non-breeding period foraging for food.
These noisy birds, known to the Noongar as ngo-lak, are attracted to pine plantations and hakeas, and can often be seen squabbling over nuts and pine cones in the high branches, tossing the left-over husks to the ground.
They also enjoy the seeds of grevillia, dryandra and banksia as welll as domestic fruit trees such as almonds.
Carnaby's cockatoos were only relatively recently discovered to be a separate species from the long-billed black cockatoo, also known as Baudin's cockatoo, which is also native to the South-West and is distinguished, as its name suggests, by the length of its beak.
Once numerous, they are now classified "rare or likely to become extinct" and federally listed as Endangered.
According to Birdlife Australia, the past 50 years has seen a 50 per cent decline in their population, and their range has been reduced by up to one-third.
DID YOU KNOW?
A pair of Carnaby's cockatoos act the clown on a dead branch. Photo: Kirri HardyTo find out more about the status of Carnaby's cockatoos, Birdlife Australia will be holding its sixth community-based Great Cocky Count survey, on Sunday, April 6, to count night-time nesting sites of Carnaby's cockatoos and red-tailed black cockatoos throughout WA.
The key aim of the survey is to identify as many nesting sites as possible on a single night, so if black cockatoos nest near your place, make sure you take part.