#3621 - Calyptorhynchus banksii ssp. naso - Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
AKA Karrak to the indigenous peoples of the Perth region.
One of the increasingly rare Black Cockatoos found around Perth, with the populations threatened by habitat loss, starvation, and illegal trade in live birds.
The red-tailed black cockatoo was the first bird from Eastern Australia illustrated by a European, as a female, presumably collected in north Queensland was sketched by Sir Joseph Banks' draughtsman Sydney Parkinson in 1770. The actual scientific binomial for the species complex has been a bit more convoluted, since ornithologist John Latham named them Psittacus banksii in 1790 very shortly after English naturalist George Shaw had described them as Psittacus magnificus. Australian-born amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews proposed Calyptorhynchus magnificus in 1927, and it stayed there for several decades, although it was unclear whether the original bird had been Red-tailed Black or, more likely, the Glossy Black (Calyptorhynchus lathami). In 1994 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature agreed that Calyptorhynchus banksii would be the name, going forward.
There are five subspecies around Australia, with this one endemic to the SW.
A small flock was a regular visitor to the large Marri (Corymbia calophylla) tree in my front yard over the duration of the BioBlitz, since it was a bumper year for gumnuts, and Marri gumnuts form the bulk of the diet for these cockatoos. In fact, you can tell which species of Black Cockatoo has been feeding in your area by examining the wreckage under the tree - each has a particular technique for opening the fruit, largely determined by the shape and size of the beak.
One creation story from western Arnhem Land tells of the Bird-people Black Cockatoo and her husband Crow sprouting black feathers after becoming afflicted with a sickness from across the sea to the north. In fear of being buried underground, they transform into birds and fly high in the sky.
To the Tiwi people, the red-tailed black cockatoo is a psychopomp, accompanying the spirits of the dead.
