Glossy Black Cockatoo Conservation

Glossy Black-Cockatoos are declining in numbers as a consequence of the clearing of hollow-bearing trees and Allocasuarina species, their most important food source.

The Glossies in the Mist project aims to identify key feeding trees and map nesting hollows to secure foraging and breeding habitat for the Glossy Black-Cockatoo within the Great Western Wildlife Corridor.

The project relies on private landowners reporting Glossy Black-Cockatoo sightings, mapping stands of Allocasuarina, assessing cone feeding and mapping hollow-bearing trees on their properties.

The Glossy Black-Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) is the smallest of the five black cockatoos in Australia. 

It's plumage is dull brown-black, with red or orange-red tail panels. It has a bulbous bill and a small & inconspicuous crest. 

Adult females exhibit extensive yellow patches on their head & neck and the tail panels tend to be more orange-red with black bars, but can become more red and less barred with age.

Some adult males have a few yellow feathers on the head and the males' tail panels tend to be bright red.

Young birds look similar to adult males, however they tend to have yellow spotted or streaked flanks and under-bodies, with some yellow spots on their head. 

Glossy Black-Cockatoos are notoriously quiet and regularly return to feed on favoured stands of Black She-oaks (Allocasuarina littoralis) or Weeping She-oak (Allocasuarina verticillata).

Located between Bullio and Bungonia, the Great Western Wildlife Corridor is an important landscape connection for the Glossy Black-Cockatoo and the only vegetated habitat corridor between the Southern Blue Mountains and Morton National Park.

Glossy Black-Cockatoos require corridors of native vegetation with appropriate nesting and feeding habitat to move across the broader landscape, but the Great Western Wildlife Corridor is being increasingly divided into smaller lots and cleared for new housing and infrastructure.

Have you seen Glossy Black-Cockatoos in the Southern Highlands or Tablelands? Do you have she-oaks growing on your property? Do you have trees with hollows on your block? We want to hear from you!

To gain further understanding and secure the Glossy Black-Cockatoo population in the Great Western Wildlife Corridor (GWWC), we need to map and protect favoured feed and hollow trees as well as monitor nesting success. And since a large portion of the GWWC is on private property, we need your help!

We will be holding a number of training sessions to assist landholders with Glossy Black-Cockatoo identification and behaviour, field assessment and reporting of favoured feeding and hollow bearing trees.

We are also looking for landholders who are interested in conserving remnants of the GWWC on their land. Landholders participating in the project will receive locally-sourced Allocasuarina tubestock, to improve foraging habitat for Glossy Black-Cockatoos.

The Glossies in the Mist project is funded by the NSW Government's Saving Our Species program, and is a collaborative project between the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Wingecarribee Shire, Council, Friends of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo and Forestry NSW.