ShareThis22 February 2012
We’ve all had the odd epiphany in life. I suspect I’ve had a few with birds. My first was about five years old when I fell out of a tree at the local rookery near Catforth in Lancashire. My second epiphany was after arriving in New Zealand 40 years ago and thinking “Oooohhh, I’d better buy a field guide to work some of these things out” as I gazed on a Tui in my Wellington garden.
I hear of epiphanies all the time these days as friends say “I saw a bird today and thought of you” and I wonder if that was their epiphany to the world of birds?
A Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo with its chick inside a hollow tree in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Photo courteousy of Seadog Films.
Wildlife filmmaker Leighton de Barros had a noisy one some five years or so ago…
“I was working in the garden at the front of our house, when I heard an almighty commotion in the backyard. I raced around the back to find about thirty Carnaby’s cockatoos tearing apart a medium sized bottle brush tree. I stood there and watched in awe and admiration at these stunning birds that were seemingly having the time of their lives as they demolished the tree.
I watched for about half an hour as they screeched, squawked, chattered and chased each other around before they burst into the sky and were gone. I felt very lucky and special at being able to get so close and observe this simple, yet wonderful act of nature. Despite this fantastic encounter I knew hardly a thing about these amazing birds. Little did I know that only two years later I would embark on an incredible journey to film their entire life cycle.”
The result of this epiphany will be aired on ABC 1 TV at 8.00 pm on March 13th. ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ is a 52 minute documentary (also available as a DVD form ABC Shops everywhere) that follows the life of Calyptorhynchus latirostris otherwise known as Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo and known locally around their home range as Short-billed Black-Cockatoo.
Four species of Australia’s five black cockatoos are found in Western Australia and nowhere else in the world: three of these four are endangered, which is a sad indictment of our treatment of birds and their habitats. (The fifth of Australia’s black cockies is the Glossy Black-Cockatoo which is restricted to the east / south-east of the country). The population of Carnaby’s has suffered more than most and this is due greatly to human impact in their range. Their numbers have more than halved over the last forty years. An organised 2010 count of the cockatoos in WA revealed a total count of 6,672 Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo Given that a number would have been missed and allowing for the possibility of some being counted twice, this tends to support an estimated population of 8,000 to 10,000 birds for the Swan Coastal Plain and adjacent escarpment.
Leighton’s epiphany was enough for him to mention them to a fellow whale researcher, working with him on Whale Patrol for the ABC. DEC Senior Wildlife Investigator Rick Dawson was also very interested in them and now de Barros had a kindred spirit to share his passion. They spent two years filming bits and pieces about the birds in various parts of their south west WA range. Much talk about his new found quest aroused the interest of the ABC TV and encouraged by them to produce a film on the “black-cockatoos”, the journey began. The long process of researching and writing the story and then trying to get the program funded began. In the nick of time and with help and advice from ABC TV, Western Australia’s State film funding agency, Screen West and through Screen Australia they eventually garnered the money needed for the film. Secured marginally before the beginning of another breeding season, arrangements needed to fall into place and fast!
Leighton then spent “a wonderful five months filming the life cycle of a small family of Carnaby’s in a beautiful area of the wheat-belt in Western Australia.”
“With the generous support and incredible knowledge of Rick Dawson, Dr Denis Saunders and Dr Peter Mawson we were able for the first time ever to capture on film the birds as they nested, laid their eggs and raised their offspring through to the young bird fledging and leaving the nest. It was a remarkable and humbling experience. Seven months of post production and the film was complete.”
These stunning birds are facing a battle for survival. Their breeding grounds are only just able to support current populations and they are running out of large trees with suitable large nesting hollows, thanks to habitat destruction on a grand scale. You know the story, oh that old tree, it’s dead and no use to anyone! In their summer roosting grounds near Perth, vital feeding and roosting sites are being cleared at the rate of a football oval a day. In orchards near Perth they are still being shot as a pest. Hundreds of Carnaby’s are killed by vehicles every year thanks either to their slow flight, feeding roadside on spilt seed or simply the fast or heavy vehicles on the roads today. Other black cockatoos such as Baudin’s (also known as Long-billed Black-Cockatoo) and Forest (a south-western WA sub-species of) Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo are in an even more precarious position.
Leighton said recently “I am very proud of the film, ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’. It conveys the highs and lows of the people working with these magnificent birds and also the emotion as we follow the small Carnaby’s family as they struggle to survive in the wild. I hope that through watching the documentary many of us think about how we use our land and our resources and the ramifications it has on our wonderful wildlife. I also hope that it inspires people to support the amazing work that a small band of dedicated people are doing to ensure these incredible birds survive and can be enjoyed by future generations.”
‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ screens on ABC1 TV on March 13 at 8.30pm. The DVD Giveaway has now closed.
It’s a shame the family of Carnaby’s, the true stars of the show, can’t watch the programme, they’d enjoy it….
