Carnaby's Black Cockatoo as Totem

Carnaby's Black Cockatoo as Totem

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MEANINGS – Rain Bird

Rain bird, rain magic, following the rain and preferring times of high rainfall, being able to move easily through many different types of environment, adaptability, preferring the company of those with like mind, crying and calling out your song, crying with joy and emotional freedom, travel, needing to be constantly on the move, needing a familiar home to return to, preserving what you care for, spirit, competition, a close relationship to trees, fun and enjoyment, a connection to Australian bushland and woodlands as well as their wights.

Description

The short-billed black cockatoo (Carnaby’s black cockatoo, Carnaby’s cockatoo, large black cockatoo, mallee cockatoo, white-tailed cockatoo) is endemic to south-western Australia. They are black, having white/yellowish tail feathers and cheek patches. The male has a pink-red eye ring. They have distinctive short, broad, powerful beaks. They are large parrots, being 53-58 centimetres in length and a wingspan of more than a metre. They are quite similar in appearance to the Baudin’s black cockatoo. They feed on the seeds of proteaceaous plants (banksia, hakea, grevillea) as well as eucalyptus seeds and sheoaks. They generally take food from about 50 or more plants. They will also take wood-boring grubs. They can adapt and take food from introduced plants, including canola. They often flock to the crowns of trees, communally cracking seed pods and cones. They will forage on the ground less often. They are messy and noisy eaters, frequently dropping large amounts of cones, pods and other feeding material to the ground.

They are gregarious, preferring to move, roost and feed in small parties or huge flocks of hundreds (and more rarely – given population decline – thousands of birds). They will also flock with similar species; other black cockatoos. They are monogamous. They become sexually mature at around 4 years, and can live for up to 60 years. They are a mobile species, needing to move sequentially through the landscape, which means they need corridors of protected land to provide food and prevent high mortality rates. Fragmentation of feeding habitat can cause the starvation and impairment of fledglings and juveniles. They compete for nesting hollows with invasive parrots (like the corella), galahs, ducks, birds of prey (like owls) and European honeybees. They are also threatened by the clearing of feeding/breeding grounds, removed or destroyed nesting hollows and illegal poaching for the pet trade. They are listed as Endangered in Australia. Their population has fallen by more than 50% in 45 years, with many of their original breeding grounds having been abandoned. To help preserve the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, licensed aviculturalists (including those at Perth Zoo) maintain captive populations for the purpose of breeding, rehabilitation and re-introduction. They are known as the ‘rain bird,’ due to their habit of moving into areas of high rainfall after the summer breeding season.

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Crescent medium weight illustration board, with watercolour pencil, pencil, water-fast fineliner, and acrylic and iridescent paint. 7.4 x 8 inches