Bushfires force glossy black cockatoos back to Melbourne after 150 years

Photo by Bruce Wedderburn.

They haven’t been spotted in Melbourne for more than 150 years, but the return of the glossy black cockatoo is bittersweet for those who love them.

At least four of the near-threatened birds, which are native to the fire-ravaged town of Mallacoota, have been spotted more than 400km away in Melbourne’s bayside and south-eastern suburbs in May.

“The sad reality is that they are only here because their habitat was burnt out in East Gippsland,” said BirdLife Australia public affairs manager Sean Dooley.

Experts have said glossy black cockatoos were once widespread in south-eastern Australia, but now have a patchy distribution throughout the country and were particularly rare in Victoria.

Earlier this year, conservationists were horrified by images of dead birds lining the beach after the fires at Mallacoota, home to a glossy black cockatoo population.

Monash University ornithology and conservation lecturer Rohan Clarke said they had been forced into the suburbs in search of their specialised diet of the cones of some species of coastal she-oaks, or casuarina trees.

Mr Clarke, a biodiversity expert who appeared at the bushfire royal commission in late May, said almost all of the birds’ habitat had been burnt.

“They simply don’t have the capacity to eat other food, they’re specialised to feed on the seeds of she-oaks,” he said.

Mr Dooley said the birds used to exist around Melbourne before the clearing of native she-oaks to fuel the kilns that built the bricks for the city.

“As far as I can tell they were extinct around Melbourne by the 1870s,” he said.

Glossy black cockatoo feasting on she-oak cones at Braeside Park, 16 May 2020. Photo by Bruce Wedderburn.

Bruce Wedderburn, a bird watcher for more than 30 years, was among a number of enthusiasts who flocked to Braeside Park to catch a glimpse of one of the “escapees” last month.

“Even the ones we saw were sitting in a fairly sparse casuarina tree, but if you didn’t know they were there, they’re quite difficult to see, we walked straight past them,” he said.

For Mr Dooley, the return of the birds to Melbourne was exciting, but also “laced with such poignancy”.

“These are kind of survivors, fleeing the Holocaust of flames, and they’re hanging on, they’re resilient,” he said.

“Hopefully they’ll find enough food, who knows, we might see them.”