Glossy Black Cockatoo
- peter smith
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
Cockatoos are intelligent and fascinating birds. In Sydney around Menai we had hundreds of Yellow-crested cockatoos who foraged in the local parks. Around Jervis Bay we have hundreds of Yellow tailed black cockatoos which sometimes fly enmasse over our house from Booderee to feeding grounds in the north and then return in the evening. The Glossy Black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami) is different. It is a smaller cockatoo which lives in small family groups and only eats the seeds which it prises from the cones of She-oaks.
The Glossy Blacks live along the eastern coast of Australia from Townsville in the north down to Melbourne in the south and a special group on Kangaroo Island. They are restricted to where She-oaks and water is plentiful and nesting sites available. Unfortunately land clearing and bushfires have reduced their preferred habitats and their numbers have declined to the point that they are listed as vulnerable. Birdlife.org do a citizen science survey every year to try and keep track of their numbers.
Jervis Bay provides the ideal habitat with lots of forests full of she-oaks. Near me is the Jervis Bay National Park and Booderee National Park is a few kilometres away. We have a family of Glossy Blacks who range through this full area.
My first introduction to them was on a walk near the leisure centre. I caught a flash of red from their tails as they landed on gums near the track and surveyed the area. A few minutes later they decided I was not a threat and flew to a Casuarina tree along the track and began eating. It was February 2023 and there was a male, a female and a juvenile.
The three stayed together for the next year. The picture to the left was taken 13 January 2024 at 10.30am in the trees on the outskirts of Jervis Bay National Park. They had been foraging all morning and for a couple of hours sat in a gum tree resting and preening.
They were seen together throughout the summer but as autumn approached the juvenile had disappeared and wasn't seen again until the following summer. Presumably this was due to the parents preparing to raise a new chick. Glossy Blacks mate every 2 years and will normally only have one chick. They need a tree hollow and will often use the same one repeatedly. These ones appear to nest in Jervis Bay National Park near Summercloud Crescent. This is based on other residents' observations, one seeing them mate in his back yard.
During the summer of 2025 sometimes three were seen, sometimes two. They seemed to take the juvenile out on some foraging expeditions but leave it around the nest on other occasions. For me the important information is were there three or four in the family? Other people I met in the bush had told me they had seen four, which was exciting because it meant this little family was growing. In early autumn I was walking back from the shops in the evening when I heard their call. I looked up to see four of them flying into the bush east of me. I dashed home, grabbed my camera and went chasing them unsuccessfully. I have not seen them since then, which is not unusual as I have rarely seen them during winter. I look forward to summer to see if I can get a picture of the four of them together.
Comments