Glossy-black cockatoo project
During 2026, Killarney Bushcare will be part of a project to install nest boxes for glossy-black-cockatoos and monitor them with cameras and acoustic sensors.
The project is part of a larger project called Koala Climate Corridors Initiative: Bunyas to Borders (B2B) Corridor Project initiated in 2023 by the Lockyer Uplands Catchment Group.
The main aim of that project is to make koalas and a range of other target species more resilient to climate change by creating a land-scape scale habitat corridor that allows them to move around more freely and adjust to climate shifts and events, such as bushfires.
Why is this project important?
In south-east Queensland, glossy-black cockatoos are listed as vulnerable.
They nearly exclusively rely on the cones from the female trees of just two different sheoak species (Allocasuarina littoralis and Allocasuarina torulosa) for their food source and like other cockatoos, they use tree hollows for nesting, which are typically found in old, large eucalypt trees.
Both allocasuarinas and old-growth eucalypts have been decimated through deforestation and are prone to falling victim to high-intensity fires which have increased in frequency due to climate change.
Artificial nesting boxes have successfully been used to help glossy-black cockatoos on Kangaroo Island recover from the devastating 2019-20 bushfires that destroyed many of their nesting and feeding trees.
By monitoring known nesting sites and installing nest boxes nearby, we hope to contribute to improved knowledge about the needs of our local population, but also potentially get them to accept artificial nests which will make them more resilient to climate change.