Greening Australia and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia have teamed up to attract a subspecies of the glossy black cockatoo that is now found only on Kangaroo Island.

The local variety is smaller but has a bigger beak than those found in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

In 1995 it was heading towards extinction with less than 200 left on Kangaroo Island, until a recovery program helped boost the population to about 450 by 2020.

WWF-Australia and Greening Australia, with the help of RAW Group, are planting Glossy Black Cockatoo habitat trees – Sheoaks – on farmer Ed Vercoe’s property down at Carrickalinga. Photo: WWF

But major summer bushfires destroyed half their feeding habitat and close to 40 per cent of their nests, highlighting the urgent need to establish habitat on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula.

The cockatoos feed almost exclusively on the seeds from drooping sheoaks, but most trees on the peninsula have been lost to land clearing.

They are now being replaced with a mix of sheoaks and eucalypts to provide the birds with food and nesting sites.

“If we plant it, hopefully they will come, make little cockatoo babies, and then spread out and multiply,” Greening Australia senior program officer Andrew Woodroffe said.

The sites chosen and the seeds sourced were the result of collaborative analysis and modelling with local experts.

“First we identified high-priority locations to restore sheoak woodland on the Fleurieu, based on the needs and preferences of glossies and the proximity to Kangaroo Island,” Woodroffe said.

“Then we collected seed from sheoaks in different temperature and rainfall zones of South Australia to make sure the plantings are as ready as possible for whatever climate change brings.”

Fleurieu landholders who want to discuss planting on their properties are being encouraged to register their interest with Greening Australia.

-AAP