“These declines are likely to have been exacerbated by the 2019-2020 bushfires, which burnt approximately 18 per cent of their range.” “They were listed as vulnerable in NSW in 2005 following dramatic population declines,” Taylor says. Reporting rates of gang-gangs have been in decline across much of their range, but it’s not entirely known why.

Photo: AmyJo_Freelance_Artist/Pixabay Gang-gangs are under threat

While they regularly eat the seeds and fruits of eucalypts and acacias and many types of introduced garden species, they also enjoy sawfly larvae and will even eat cicadas and acacia galls.” Gang-gang cockatoos were listed as an endangered species in 2022. “It may be a surprise to many that gang-gangs are not strict herbivores. “You can often hear the sound of falling debris where they are enthusiastically chewing fruits in the canopy,” Taylor says.

“Instead of leaves, feathers or other material, gang-gang’s make a cosy bed of chewed bark for their eggs.” Their hollow requirements are similar to other parrots and wood ducks. “Wood ducks are early season breeders and gang-gangs are known to use the same hollow in the same year, once wood ducks have fledged.” “They use their beaks to strip bark off trees to line hollows in preparation for egg incubation,” Taylor says. Gang-gangs are small but powerfulĭespite being Australia’s smallest black cockatoo, gang-gangs have notoriously powerful beaks. “Gang-gangs are a canopy specialist and occur primarily in forest and woodland habitats,” Taylor says. They were one of several mainland birds introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia between 19 when part of Flinders Chase was identified as a sanctuary due to its lack of pests. Until the 1960s, their habitat even stretched as far south as King Island, off Tasmania’s northwest coast. They occur along the Great Dividing Range from the central north coast of NSW, through the ACT and central and southwestern Victoria, to the South Australian border,” Taylor says. “Gang-gangs are endemic to eastern Australia. While they hold a special spot in the heart of Canberrans, you’ll also find gang-gangs well beyond the territory. “Some gang-gangs move to lower elevations in winter but some remain in areas with higher elevation,” Taylor says. (The Southern brush-tailed rock-wallaby was chosen as the ACT’s mammal emblem in 2018.) The gang-gang is also the insignia for the ACT Parks and Conservation Service and the Canberra Ornithologist Group – our local bird loving group. When the Australian Capital Territory adopted the gang-gang as its emblem in 1997 it was the only state or territory to feature a bird as its faunal emblem instead of a mammal. Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU They are a Canberra icon Many compare their call to the sound of a drawn-out creaky door.” Stacey Taylor, a Master’s student at ANU, is studying gang-gang cockatoos in the ACT. If you can’t get close enough to identify it, try listening instead. “Their most distinctive trait is their call that is often heard while they are in flight. “They are not as commonly spotted as other similar sized parrots and should certainly not be mistaken for the much more common, but also beautifully coloured, galah.” “The males boast a spectacular red head and both the males and females have a wispy crest.” “Gang-gangs are an incredibly beautiful parrot,” Taylor says. Gang-gangs, one of 14 cockatoo species in Australia, are crowd favourites for their slate-grey feathers with blushes of pink, the male’s distinctive red crest, and their quirky call. We asked our gang-gang guru what we know about the birds, what we still need to find out, and what makes these charismatic cockies special.

No formal research or monitoring has been conducted about the species, says Stacey Taylor, a Master’s student at The Australian National University (ANU) who is studying the patterns of occupancy of the gang-gang across the ACT. That became clear in the 2021 Bird of the Year poll, where they finished third out of 50 Australian native birds.ĭespite their popularity, we don’t know a lot about them. They are the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory, but enthusiasm for the gang-gang cockatoo stretches far beyond the Canberra bubble.

Cockatoo gang gang