{"id":492137,"date":"2026-06-14T09:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/492137\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T09:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:51:08","slug":"flamin-cockatoos-have-lost-much-of-their-habitat-to-bushfires-can-the-species-survive-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/492137\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Flamin\u2019 cockatoos\u2019 have lost much of their habitat to bushfires. Can the species survive? | Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the entrance to Wyperfeld national park, in north-west Victoria<\/a>, more than a dozen pink cockatoos are sprinkled across a hedge row of pine trees like Christmas decorations. These are Aleppo pines, not the native conifers that the birds rely on for nesting habitat and as a primary source of food.<\/p>\n

Still, the feathered ornaments appear quite content, nestled in among the spruce and ripping into pine cones with their dexterous claws and beaks, making gentle cracking sounds that punctuate the soft roar of Mallee winds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a blissful scene that belies the devastation ahead. Inside the park, 70% of the cockatoo\u2019s core habitat, an area known as \u201cpine plains\u201d, was scorched in January\u2019s devastating bushfires, leaving charcoal shadows and empty space.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s bad news for Lophochroa leadbeateri, an endangered bird previously known as the Major Mitchell\u2019s cockatoo<\/a>. The ecologist Dr Victor Hurley calls them \u201cflame-crested\u201d, or sometimes simply \u201cflamin\u2019 cockatoos\u201d, referencing their fiery red and yellow striped crest, and the blaze of salmon pink under their wings.<\/p>\n

Two fires in 12 years is devastating for the cockatoos at Wyperfeld, ecologist Victor Hurley says. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Hurley, who has spent decades monitoring the birds, says the species relies on slender cypress pines, a native tree called Callitris gracilis, for their breeding hollows. But to accommodate a growing cockatoo family, the trees must be ancient, he says \u2013 at least 85 years old, and ideally 125 years or more.<\/p>\n

Very large, old pines were already vanishingly rare, thanks to a legacy of land clearing and major fires in 2014, which tore through 60% of pine plains, destroying 97% of the known cavity-bearing trees in the burnt area.<\/p>\n

That was before the 2025-26 bushfires, which torched 440,000 hectares of land across Victoria \u2013 larger than the area which burned on Black Saturday, according to the state government<\/a>. Of that, 59,000 hectares was in Wyperfeld park.<\/p>\n

Burnt cypress pines glow red in the late afternoon sun. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The fires took their toll on many endangered birds. Eastern bristlebirds lost 82% of their habitat at Howe Flat near Mallacoota, a key stronghold for the species. Post-fire surveys of the surviving population showed a 30% decrease in numbers. In South Australia, fires in Deep Creek national park<\/a> affected half of the available habitat for western beautiful firetail and Mt Lofty Ranges southern emu-wren.<\/p>\n

Homes for the \u2018wimpy\u2019 kids<\/p>\n

Two fires in 12 years is devastating for the cockatoos at Wyperfeld, the largest breeding site for the cockatoos in Victoria, Hurley says. Previously there were 178 large, old native pines within the burnt area. Barely a handful remain.<\/p>\n

A small unburnt grove at the eastern end of the park offers a glimpse at the kind of habitat that has now been lost. The sparsely treed patch of semi-arid woodland is dotted with hardy casuarina and slender cypress pines. Small lichens and mosses are growing on the sandy forest floor.<\/p>\n

Here stands something resembling a crucifix. Strapped to the top of a repurposed power pole is a hollowed out log with a bird-sized door. It\u2019s an early proof-of-concept for an artificial hollow, MacGyvered by Hurley back in 2009.<\/p>\n

The artificial hollow designed by Hurley back in 2009. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

As long as a tree is large enough, cockatoos will excavate their own living space, clearing out the cavity and tidying up.<\/p>\n

Once available, competition for the hollows is fierce. \u201cThe flame-cresteds seem to be the wimpier kid in the school yard,\u201d Hurley says, often losing out to more assertive galahs, or feral European honeybees that fill the space with honeycomb. The problem is not just the lack of hollows, but also their limited availability.<\/p>\n

Hurley, and a small but dedicated band of volunteers known as the Mallee Woodpeckers, have spent innumerable hours monitoring the birds, tracking their breeding and feeding behaviours, and working to address the deficit of available hollows by building artificial ones.<\/p>\n

More modern designs are now carved into the trunks of trees that have died but remain standing, including those charred on the outside.<\/p>\n

What a camera in one of the new hollows can see. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

They chainsaw a slice out of the tree, carve out a space inside \u2013 at least 20cm wide \u2013 and replace an arc of the outer bark wood to make it weatherproof. The final product is barely noticeable to the untrained eye \u2013 just a tiny door opening on to a cosy space, and sometimes a perch point.<\/p>\n

Together with Parks Victoria, about 150 new hollows have been added to the park.<\/p>\n

Hurley and Michael Gooch inspect a hollow, using a camera on an extension pole. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Will Trimble, an area chief ranger for the southern Mallee at Parks Victoria, says it is exciting to see cockatoos investigating the artificial hollows, even as they are being built. In addition to creating new hollows to \u201creduce competition for a nesting spot\u201d, the public land manager is planting more slender cypress pines to replace those lost in the fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cParks Victoria rangers are doing our best to help native animals and plants recover from the fires,\u201d he says. \u201cPink cockatoos are one of the highlights of Wyperfeld national park and we want to see them thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barengi Gadjin Land Council, which represents local traditional owners, says the destruction of cockatoo habitat is a \u201cmajor concern\u201d. \u201cThe pink cockatoo features in our stories and is an important species for us,\u201d says Colin Gorton, the council\u2019s on Country manager.<\/p>\n

While the land council supports both short and long-term recovery efforts, Gorton says \u201cit will be many years before the trees, lost to the fires, will be able to support the pink cockatoo population in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n

Michael Gooch runs wildlife tours and accommodation with his partner on their large bush reserve next door to the park, and volunteers his time to help keep an eye on the cockatoos. They had a car packed \u201cready to go\u201d throughout the fire season, at one point relocating a guest from Canada to the Patchewollock pub.<\/p>\n

The birds are a \u201cmassive drawcard\u201d for local and international visitors, he says, especially given the growing popularity of birdwatching<\/a> among younger generations. Most of their guests are birders, Gooch says, in search of the \u201cMallee trinity\u201d: pink cockatoos, regent parrots and malleefowl.<\/p>\n

Apart from the few remaining old trees, the next cohort of pines sprouted sometime in the 1990s, and are still half a century away from being suitable for nesting hollows. The younger pines serve another important purpose, as food.<\/p>\n

Pink cockatoos feed on Aleppo pines. They are the main seed dispersers for the pines. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Jane White, an environmental scientist who volunteers with the Mallee Woodpeckers, says the cockatoos like to travel with a \u201cpacked lunch\u201d. \u201cYou often see them carrying a Callitris branch with a seed across the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a reciprocal arrangement. The birds are the main seed dispersers for the pines, she says, and \u2013 as long as the tree is large enough \u2013 they excavate their own hollows, which a myriad of lizards, mammals and other birds rely on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re invested in their community,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re helping with providing houses and food and shelter and all the other bird life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fiona Murdoch, the founder of the Friends of Mallee Conservation, has a couple of \u201cpinkies\u201d on her conservation property, part of which was also burnt in the fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fly over most days and they generally bring their young one back to show us,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Murdoch says she feels \u201cpretty shattered\u201d by the loss of so many old trees. \u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty horrible few months. The trees are hundreds of years old, so they\u2019re not coming back in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artificial hollows aren\u2019t an ideal solution, she says, but it\u2019s the only one available in our lifetime. \u201cWe can\u2019t magic up a tree, but you can build a habitat hollow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the entrance to Wyperfeld national park, in north-west Victoria, more than a dozen pink cockatoos are sprinkled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-492137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}