Baudin's or Carnaby's

[Philip Veerman <>]

A little clarification. If – they were one species when I grew up in WA, then they are still one species now. Speciation is not that fast. That confuses a biological distinction (a real situation even if we don’t actually know it) with the having named them as such. To be more correct, it is that they were named as all the one species up to maybe a few decades ago but with more information, have been recognised and regarded as separate species recently. The real change is at least thousands of years old. The naming is recent opinion. Forshaw back in (1969 & 1981) discussed the difference but did not like to regard them as different species.

 

Philip

 

From: Jack & Andrea Holland [
Sent: Monday, 21 November, 2016 4:31 PM
To: Lindsay Hansch; COG-L
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Baudin's or Carnaby's

 

Lindsay, these are notoriously difficult to identify even by call and habitat – they were one species when I grew up in WA!  More recently both species were around my Sister’s place when she was living on the Darling Scarp, but proper identification was always difficult.

 

The WA Birdlife people have put up some info how best to identify them on http://www.birdlife.org.au/projects/southwest-black-cockatoo-recovery/publications-and-forms.  As you will see the the main distinguishing features are that the Carnaby's has a short wide bill and a shorter call, and the Baudin’s has a longer bill and call.

 

From your image I suspect yours is likely a Baudin’s but I couldn’t be 100% certain.

 

Trust this helps

 

Jack Holland

From: Lindsay Hansch

Sent: Monday, November 21, 2016 1:21 PM

To: COG-L

Subject: [canberrabirds] Baudin's or Carnaby's

 

Could someone with greater knowledge than I please confirm or otherwise that the enclosed photo is of a Baudin's Black Cockatoo.

 

Regards

 

Lindsay Hansch