One Crowded Hour

By GlassRoad

cheeky...

...and the white cheek patches and tail feathers ( to say nothing of the racket and bombardment of dropped Marri gum nuts) are a tell tale that the White Tailed Black Cockatoos are back in town.

HUGE flocks are yelling their way through the skies and settling in the tops of the massive Marri trees heavy with blossom and nuts.
Endemic to the south west of Western Australia there are two species of WTBC. Difficult to tell apart especially in the hills (where I am) as they sometimes feed and roost together.
They hang around very high in seriously tall trees and my little camera doesn't quite zoom that far.
However the two species the Baudin (Calyptorhynchus baudinii was named in honour of the French explorer Captain Nicolas Thomas Baudin (1754-1803)  and the Carnaby (Calyptorhynchus latirostris was named in 1948 after Ivan Carnaby, a Western Australian naturalist) are distinguished b their calls and their upper bill shape.

Both species are listed as endangered as a result of land clearing fragmentation of habitat and being considered a pest by orchardists.

I think these are Baudins and what a pleasure it is to hear the 'wicha wicha' call (and the crash of gumnuts) in our street.

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