Callocephalon fimbriatum (Gang-gang Cockatoo)

2021-2022 The make or break year for Gang-gang research

Across their distribution Gang-gangs have had a 69% decline in reporting rate, within the last three decades.  It is unknown why. We need your help to better understand this decline and to try and turn it around.  A citizen science project that has been studying Gang-gang nesting ecology in the Canberra area is being expanded and we need your help to learn more about how Gang-gangs are doing in your local area.

What have we learnt so far?

In the 2018-2019 breeding season Canberra Naturemaprs submitted 165 sightings of Gang-gangs near hollows. They watched 149 of these hollows, recording 850 observations. From this work 34 nesting hollows were identified and further studied. Information obtained that was new to science included the height, tree selection and dimensions of nesting hollows; that only a small number of hollows are reused in consecutive years; that non-nesting flooded hollows are an important Gang-gangs water source; the rate of nesting success (1.4 fledglings per chick); and some chicks fall to the ground prior to fledging but can be successfully returned to a hollow. The location of core breeding areas has increased the conservation management of these areas and prevented proposed clearance. The tree hollow dimensions that derived from this work were used in the design of Gang-gang nest tubes, which are about to be trialled. 

What is happening this year?

The Gang-gang has been nominated as endangered under the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation ACT. Estimates of the national distribution impacted by the 2018/2019 fires range from 28 to 36%.  As part of its post-fire recovery funding the Commonwealth has asked eight delivery partners to apply for $745,000 to undertake Gang-gang research and recovery actions. This includes looking at factors affecting nesting outcomes in the Blue Mountains, the South Coast, Albury-Wodonga and the ACT. 

Stacey Taylor, an employee of the ACT Parks and Conservation Service has started a Masters degree on the Gang-gang and will be a great support, guidance and inspiration for Gang-gang studiers.

We particularly need to know more about the Gang-gang outside of peri-urban areas and would like to compare burnt and unburnt habitat.

What do we want you to do?

We want to replicate the Gang-gang nesting record from urban Canberra, and compare nesting success across the Cockatoo’s range, in areas of differing environmental conditions, such as fire history, remoteness, competitive hollow pressure or average temperatures. We also want to learn more about the birds diet and how that may vary across the range and time of year. 

Please record any hollow activity

Once known, breeding trees can be better protected and comparisons can be made of breeding success across the bird’s range. The breeding success rate can be compared to the distribution of environmental factors that may be influencing the decline. Factors implicated in possible decline include:

·      reduction in tree hollows from clearing and forestry practices;

·      competition for remaining hollows from other hollow nesters, particularly the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo;

·      possum predation of eggs and chicks, particularly within and close to urban areas where  Brushtail Possums are common;

·      increased fire reducing suitable feeding and nesting habitat; and

·      other climate change factors such as increased temperature during nesting or increased intensity of summer rains. Such events can lead to chicks dying in a hollow from heat exhaustion or hollows being flooded.

The particular hollow behaviours we are asking you to record, help us in determining whether it is a likely nest tree. Teams of citizen science researchers will follow up likely records, by undertaking observations. Your records are helping us focus the search effort. We would love you to be further involved if you would like to be part of these observations message MichaelMulvaney.

Please record feeding observations

The knowledge of Gang-gang diet is pretty basic. They are known to mainly feed on seeds and fruits of eucalypts and wattles as well as on over fifty types of introduced trees and shrubs. It is also a connoisseur of sawfly larvae and will eat cicadas and Acacia galls.  

We’re hoping to be overwhelmed with sightings of feeding Gang-gangs. The proportion that a particular plant or invertebrate is captured amongst all sightings will give an indication as to the relative importance and how this may differ across the birds range and time of year. The data can also be compared across different regions (such as unburnt/recently burnt, urban/non-urban) and within specified distances of an active nest tree or occupied nest box. So please get to it – if you have Gang-gangs feeding in your garden every day for a month then we would like a sighting, clearly showing what they are eating, every day.

We know you will deliver and look forward to your hollow activity and feeding sightings. Thank you fellow researchers.