Widespread, Successful, Australian Natives… Little Corellas

By Keith Hutton on August 17, 2011 in Other

Sydney is a good place for cockatoos and five species can be seen regularly in the Eastern Suburbs.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos are winter visitors to Sydney, less common and bigger than white cockatoos but very obvious when their loud wailing calls attract attention as they fly lazily high over the seaside suburbs in search of banksia trees and exotic pines.

Galahs are well-known medium-sized pink and grey cockatoos with cream-coloured crowns; they feed in flocks on the ground in parks and open grassy areas in the east.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are the only white cockatoos that are native to the Sydney region. Long-billed and Little Corellas are white cockatoos too, both native to Australia, but not to Sydney, where they originate from escaped or deliberately released captive birds that are now feral and well established in suitable areas.

The two corellas are quite easy to distinguish from Sulphur-crested Cockatoos; they are much smaller, with no prominent yellow crests and they have penetrating, querulous calls quite unlike the raucous, ear-shattering calls of the bigger birds.

Long-billed Corellas are mostly white with a faint yellow wash on the undersides of their wings and tail, a red face, an obvious red crescent on the neck and upper breast, and a long bill.

Little Corellas are mostly white too, a bit smaller and less bulky than Long-billed – about the size of a Galah – with a small white crest, little or no red showing on the throat and breast, and a short bill.

Little Corellas are active, noisy and conspicuous native birds, traditionally sedentary or nomadic in arid and semi-arid habitats in the inland, north and west of Australia; they live in flocks and are widespread to common and abundant there.

They inhabit open woodland and adjacent open country, usually near water, and are scarce in higher rainfall areas of the east and southeast, apart from where there are successful local feral flocks.

Most populations have benefited from land clearance, the introduction of cereal cropping and water tanks, and farm dams for livestock, all of which have increased or enhanced their habitat.

They feed mainly on seeds of grasses, legumes and grains, and also some bulbs and corms that they dig up from the ground. Flocks may run into thousands when they feed on cereal, oilseed and nut crops, damage roosting trees, or raid cattle feedlots. At such times they are perceived as pests and have been deliberately and illegally shot or poisoned. Ironically, in other areas they have been protected for their role in controlling noxious plants by feeding on the weed seeds.

Overall they appear to be very adaptable and successful birds that are thriving and expanding their range throughout Australia, including the beaches and bays of eastern Sydney.