Carnaby's Black-cockatoo

Carnaby's black cockatoo communicates by auditory and visual displays. The voice is generally noisy with several calls; loudest and most frequent is a wailing wy-lah, which is uttered by both sexes and often heard before the birds themselves are seen. There is usually an interval of 0.4 seconds before the call is repeated. This call is made by birds in flight, before taking off and returning to the nest. Carnaby's black cockatoos that are not in flight may answer with this call when they hear it. The call is often shortened or chopped off three-quarters of the way through as the bird takes off. The call varies between individual Carnaby's black cockatoos, and older nestlings can distinguish their parents' calls. Saunders labelled a variant of the wy-lah as the interrogative call—it is drawn out and ends with an inflection. Birds often utter a soft chuck call when alone. Females make a whistling call composed of two notes of varying volume when perched or about to take off. They also utter a softer version that is 0.6 seconds long, as well as a long single-noted whistle when alone. The male makes a soft shot wy-lah call in similar situations. Birds may also make a harsh screeching alarm call when they notice something is out of place. They squawk loudly in disputes with their own kind, when other animals enter breeding territory, or when they are handled by people in captivity. Males can utter a harsh chattering squeak when arguing with other males. Males make two calls that are directed at females, sometimes as a prelude to mating. One is a sequence of short squeaks; the other is made up of consecutive ah notes with 0.1 second between each note. These calls can be brief or last up to several minutes. Nestlings make a noisy grating begging call when seeking or expecting food. An adult female may also make the call while incubating the eggs. Immature birds also make a grating call not associated with begging that parents ignore. Carnaby's black cockatoo flies with deep, slow wingbeats, giving it a wavelike movement. It can also glide for extended periods with its wings held downwards. Flocks generally fly at height, descending to treetops to feed or roost. Birds can be agile, manoeuvring quickly if startled or disturbed. In contrast, they waddle awkwardly on the ground. The maximum age recorded from banding has been 25 years 10.8 months for a bird banded in November 1988 at Coomallo Creek and encountered in a field 5 km away at Tootbardie in October 2014.

Carnaby's black cockatoo is found across a broad swathe of southwest Australia—mostly within the Wheatbelt region—in places that receive over 300 mm (12 in) of rainfall yearly. The limits of its range include Cape Arid to the east, Lake Cronin, Hatters Hill and Lake Moore inland, and Kalbarri to the north. Breeding takes place in areas receiving 350–700 mm (14–28 in) rainfall a year, from the Stirling Range to Three Springs as well as around Bunbury. The cockatoo pairs form flocks outside the breeding season, moving away from nesting areas. Carnaby's black cockatoo is sedentary in wetter parts of its range, and migratory in drier areas as birds move south and west towards the coast in summer. Carnaby's black cockatoo is found in Eucalyptus woodland, most commonly of wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo) or salmon gum (E. salmonophloia). It is also found nearby pine plantations and sandplains or kwongan heath with abundant Hakea, Banksia, and Grevillea shrubs.

The cockatoo is recognised as endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and as Schedule 1 "fauna that is rare or is likely to become extinct" by Western Australia's Wildlife Conservation (Specially Protected Fauna) Notice 2008(2) under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950. The population size of Carnaby's cockatoo fell by over 50% in 45 years, and up to a third of their traditional breeding grounds in the Wheatbelt have been abandoned. The bird is part of an annual census, the Great Cocky count, that has been held every year since 2009 to track the population change of Carnaby's and other black cockatoos. The 2016 Great Cocky Count counted 10,919 Carnaby's black cockatoos, indicating the population had declined by 50% on the Perth–Peel Coastal Plain since 2010, dropping by around 10% each year. The total population is estimated to consist of 40,000 individuals. Major threats to the cockatoo include clearance of their feeding and nesting habitat, destruction of nesting hollows (e.g. during firewood collection), competition with other species for nest sites, and poaching. Since European settlement, 56% of its habitat has been cleared, mainly for agriculture. Furthermore, 54% of its habitat on the Swan Coastal Plain—an important area outside the breeding season—has been lost. Much of this area lies within the Perth metropolitan area, and the city's population is predicted to increase 70% by 2050. The Western Australian State Government has produced a Green Growth Plan to manage this expansion; conservation groups are concerned the cockatoo (along with other species) could suffer further loss of habitat. In particular, the loss of pine plantations north of Perth could jeopardise the species' food supply. In February 2017, WWF-Australia and BirdLife Australia appealed to the Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to intervene and halt the ongoing removal of pine trees. BirdLife International designated 13 sites (Important Bird Areas) as being important specifically for Carnaby's black cockatoo. These are the Northern Swan Coastal Plain, which supports between 4600 and 15000 birds outside the breeding season, the Stirling Range, and 11 other sites that support between 20 and 110 breeding pairs of Carnaby's black cockatoos. The species' low rate of reproduction and long period of immaturity render it vulnerable to rapid change in the environment as response and recovery are slow. Their habit of forming flocks predisposes them to outbreaks of disease and localised adverse weather events. A probable outbreak of a disease led to the deaths of up to 23 breeding female cockatoos at Koobabbie in September–October 2009, a hailstorm killed 68 individuals around Perth on 22 March 2010, and 145 perished in a heatwave around Hopetoun when temperatures reached 48 °C (118 °F) on 6 January 2010. Temperature and weather extremes in southwest Australia are predicted to worsen with climate change. Carnaby's black cockatoos have been brought to veterinary hospitals with traumatic injuries. Motor vehicles are a hazard, as much vegetation useful to Carnaby's black cockatoos lies on road verges. The cockatoos fly into open space when leaving the vegetation, which is often over a road and in the path of oncoming traffic. Like most species of parrots, Carnaby's black cockatoo is protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) with its placement on the Appendix II list of vulnerable species, which makes the import, export, and trade of listed wild-caught animals illegal.