Favourite fence (teaser for “red-tails” series)

 

 

Pictured above is a small part of an artwork which occupies the entire lane-facing side on one West Leederville residence’s back fence.

It is a lovely, loving salute to/depiction of Calyptorhynchus banksii naso – the Forest red-tailed black cockatoo.

Three subspecies of red-tailed black cockatoo are found in WA; each inhabits a different, distinct section of Australia’s geographically-largest State.

Local humans generally abbreviate the names of all three to “red-tails”.

Endemic to WA’s southwest, the Forest Red-tail is the subspecies in serious trouble.

Once “common”, but now officially “Vulnerable”, its population has plunged because humans have destroyed so much of its habitat.

It is precisely because of that unhappy fact that we Perth inner-suburban humans now see these magnificent birds in our local streets…that, and the fact that these intelligent, adaptable cockatoos have “discovered” a “new” food source in suburbia – an “exotic”, widely planted in Perth as a “street tree”.

Late last century, when we moved to where we now live, my beloved and I never saw red-tails in “our” local streets.

Now, within a one kilometre radius of our front door, we see and hear them at least several hundred times each year.

Coming up next on Pelican Yoga: the “red-tails” series.

Each post will feature a photo taken in Perth’s inner western suburbs during May 2023.

Click here for the relevant WA Museum Information Sheet.