The Little Corella (Cacatua sanguinea sanguinea) is an introduced bird species to the southwest of Western Australia and is listed as a category 3 declared pest under the Western Australian Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 (BAM Act). This invasive species is known to be destructive, noisy, and out compete local native species for food and roosting habitat e.g., Western Ringtail Possum and Black Cockatoos.
Little Corellas are highly intelligent birds that have a long-term memory and use regular flight paths to return to areas with reliable sources of food and water. Unfortunately, these are areas such as the City of Bunbury (the City). The damage caused by Little Corellas is seasonal and occurs from late October through to April depending on the season. It is not uncommon to find flocks of between 200-500 birds within the City during this time, creating challenges for the City council to manage. The Little Corella is very adaptable bird and quickly becomes used to various management techniques.
What the City is Doing to Manage Corellas
The City has a Little Corella Management Strategy in place which outlines techniques such as trapping at control sites, approved dispersal techniques and identifying opportunities to collaborate with our neighbouring shires.
The strategy uses a combination of existing methods and investigates new techniques that have not yet been trialed in Bunbury.
To better understand the impacts and to help collect information on corellas, the City is asking for our community’s observations and views of corella flock movements and the actions being undertaken.
It is important to remember that the City is required to have a management plan in place.
The City is committed to refining and improving its management of introduced corellas to help minimise the impact on our community.
To provide feedback or your corella observations please visit our Community Connect page below.
Corella Management Program
The City’s Little Corella management program has been active since 2010 and aims to reduce the Little Corella numbers each season. In 2018, the City prepared an Introduced Corella Management Strategy to guide and unify management efforts within the Greater Bunbury Region. As the City remains focused on management efforts to minimise the adverse impacts caused by Little Corellas, the City has revised the 2018 strategy to form the 2021/2022 Little Corella Management Plan. The updated Little Corella Management Plan is a combination of techniques identified in the 2018 strategy and new techniques that have not yet been trialed within the City.
Essentially, the intention is to unsettle the Corellas from congregating in urban areas and in turn, attract them to our decoy sites where further control techniques can be undertaken.
The combination of techniques outlined in the 2021/2022 Little Corella Management Plan are:
- Trapping events at the City control sites.
- Shooting when trapping is not possible at the control site.
- Increased deterrence efforts within urban areas using Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) approved dispersal techniques - the implementation of scare kites within Queens Gardens, Horseshoe Lake and the CBD and firing of blanks within licensed areas
- Investigating the feasibility of flight path and movement tracking to outline roosting locations
- Identify opportunities to collaborate with neighbouring LGAs.
- Provide community advice/education on deterrence and dispersal mechanisms that can be undertaken on private property.
- Continue to identify suitable control sites with the Greater Bunbury Region.
What you can do on your property:
- Protecting or covering any open water sources outside that might attract Corellas.
- Removing bird feeders within your property and refraining from handfeeding all birds.
- Netting fruit trees or large trees that are ideal for roosting.
- Making noise to move the Little Corellas on (e.g., blowing of a whistle, shooing noises, tapping the tree trunk, downloading bird repellent sounds etc.) to disrupt roosting. Please consider your neighbours if using noise to help deter Corellas.
- Shining a bright light or torch at night into roosting flocks.