Counting glossies

Bob Carey.

Council is calling for eagle-eyed residents to join Glossy Black-Cockatoo Birding Day on October 14.

The Glossy Black-Cockatoo Conservancy started the initiative to enlist local residents’ help to gather information including where the birds feed and their numbers.Noosa volunteer Bob Carey or ‘Glossy Bob’ has been studying the cockatoos for many years and said the information gathered supports the organisations’ conservation work.

“Accurate records of these birds also helps our understanding, at a local level, about how they live and move around the shire,” he said.

The Glossy Black-Cockatoos are magnificent birds with large beaks and red tail feathers. They have a distinctive call and feed on Allocasuarina trees.

The Glossy Black-Cockatoo Birding Day will conclude with a get-together for volunteers from 4.30pm, at Sunshine Beach State High School which is a favourite hangout for the glossies and their are prizes up for grabs.

In 2015 Bob won the coveted Golden Ort award (orts are remains of the seeds left by the birds) for recording the most feed trees.

To join the event a training session will be held from 1-2.30pm on Friday 12 October at the Tewantin Council Chambers on the survey tools used to record sightings of the birds.Phone Noosa Council on 5329 6500 or email mail@noosa.qld.gov.au.