a flock of red tailed black cockatoos

8 posts / 0 new
Last post
Julieanne
Julieanne's picture
a flock of red tailed black cockatoos

This morning around 7am a flight of red tailed black cockatoos wheeled over my house in coburg, melbourne. There were around thirty or more of them and they landed in an oak tree nearby. They had separated into two groups and were calling each other the whole time

My dog went crazy which is what woke me up.
They didn't stay long, Im not sure what they were looking for but I assume it was food. There is a creek nearby with a lot of native vegetation along it including the seed trees they like like bulokes.

They are way out of their normal range
They were not close enough for us to see much color at all on their tails by the time we got up to look as they were in the oak tree, but in flight their profile was like a red tailed black. They made high noises, (unlike white cockatoos at all). They were big birds. We also looked at the black cockatoos that live here, on line, and they look like them.
Anyway it was such an unusual event to see and hear so many black cockatoos together that I wanted to tell you all about it. Did anybody else see them?

Julieanne
Julieanne's picture

oops I meant that they did not look like the local black cockatoos we found on line.

DenisWilson
DenisWilson's picture

Hi Julieanne
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos would be way out of range in Melbourne.
.
There are two species of black cockies which have red panels in their tails - the Glossy Black and the Red-tailed black.
.
Glossy Black-Cockatoo http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/bird/100
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo http://www.birdpedia.com/au/bi.dll/bipu02?m=006_01&id505=1000000519
.
According to these references, the Glossies rarely venture past east Gippsland, and the red-tailed are typically a dry inland species (Mallee or Wimmera in Vic).
.
The Glossies are very, very fond of Casuarina (Sheoak) seeds, as you mentioned.
I suggest you contact the Bird Observers Club of Australia, to check if other birdos there reported them. They have lots of members, but it is strongest in Melbourne.
They have an office in 183 - 185 Springvale Road
Nunawading, VIC. Phone: 03 9877 5342
.
Hope you can check it out.
Cheers
Denis

chrisbieniek.guitar
chrisbieniek.guitar's picture

Three years ago I saw a flock of Red Tailed Black Cockatoos fly over the East Link Freeway in Melbourne just after the Keysborough on ramp.

Without a shadow of a doubt they were redtails. The bold red tail feathers were obvious and I remember thinking 'I didn't think they lived this far south' I guess a small population could have migrated here.

zosterops
zosterops's picture

That is extremely interesting, chrisbieniek 

I also heard of a report of a few Red-taileds down Cranbourne way a few years back. 

rawshorty
rawshorty's picture

chrisbieniek.guitar wrote:

Three years ago I saw a flock of Red Tailed Black Cockatoos fly over the East Link Freeway in Melbourne just after the Keysborough on ramp.

Without a shadow of a doubt they were redtails. The bold red tail feathers were obvious and I remember thinking 'I didn't think they lived this far south' I guess a small population could have migrated here.

Glossy Blacks have a red tail

Shorty......Canon gear

Canberra

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/ 

zosterops
zosterops's picture

... which is extremely interesting as Glossy Blacks are also way out of range in Melb, they are usually only found in far eastern Vic. 

Red-taileds are only usually found in far western Victoria (where they are endangered). 

chrisbieniek.guitar
chrisbieniek.guitar's picture

It's possible they were glossy blacks or perhaps the Eastern subspecies of either Glossy's or Red Tailed. According to Wikipedia (not sure how accurate this is though) their are populations of both (less of Black Tailed)  in Victoria. I have seen Black Tails on Magnetic island and they looked more like these rather then the pictures of the glossies I have just looked at now. I still can't be 100% certain as it was a while ago and it does seem more likely according to distribution they were glossies. The one thing I do remember was they seemed particularly large and long for a cockatoo which is why I thought they might be Red Tails. The 2 things I am sure on without a shadow of a doubt are that they were black and they had red tails. Either way thanks for the feedback/ comments.

On another note I was fortunate enough to see 7 Yellow tails flying particularly low tonight whilst running through Cheltenham golf course at dusk (which I hadn't seen in the area yet although they are probably common). 

 and   @birdsinbackyards
                 Subscribe to me on YouTube