Red-tailed Cockatoo Recovery Program annual count shows slight jump in numbers

The count, which is part of the South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Recovery Program, saw an increase in sighting, with 1230 birds recorded.

In 2019, 1193 birds were recorded.

The red-tailed black cockatoo is an endangered species; to help track numbers, Wimmera CMA supported the recovery program.

Wimmera CMA biodiversity project coordinator Ben Holmes said Wimmera CMA had supported the recovery program for many years.

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"The Wimmera CMA fund the team to deliver these works," he said.

"We work with the federal government to develop the projects. One of the key components of this project is monitoring the cockatoos to see how their population is going."

The South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Recovery Program is managed by BirdLife Australia and supported by Limestone Coast Landscape Board, Wimmera CMA and Glenelg Hopkins CMA through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program.

More than 50 volunteers searched 1098km across the Wimmera with 26 sightings and a count of 627 birds.

The Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is considered endangered, meaning the species is in danger of becoming extinct in 10-20 years.

"It's one of Australia's most endangered species, we believe there is less than 2000 of the animals left in the wild," Mr Holmes said.

The count is an essential part of the program to see if protection measures are working.

"We have objectives aiming to improve the population, such as improving habitat, improving food availability, protecting habitat resources," Mr Holmes.

"The count is how we then evaluate the effectiveness off those activities and management actions."

The initial count is followed up with a flock count, which is to understand how many adults, juveniles and females in the population to evaluate breeding success.

The red-tailed black cockatoo habitats a wide spread of the area, all the way from Little Desert, Bordertown, to Horsham to past Casterton.

"It's really hard to count them all," Mr Holmes said.

"But we know where they like to hang out. They seem steady at the moment."

The program is working closely with landholders to protect Red-tail habitat and revegetating and replanting important habitats.

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Mr Holmes said he is thankful for all the volunteers who helped with the count held on the first weekend of May. He wanted to express that if anyone spots a Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo to contact the project team.

"If they see the red-tails resting in hollows, to please let the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo recovery team know,"

"We can go out there and assess those sites and protect the birds.

"We're not going to do anything like take your property, we just need to collect that information is critical to help protect the birds so they don't go extinct."

Visit redtail.com.au/ or call 1800 262 062 to report a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo or for more information.

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