Cockatoo Nest Survey & Protection

I am a birdwatching tour leader in Indonesia who has no birding tours nearly for the whole year in 2020 due to COVID-19 situation. Therefore I and young local sumbawanese under Sumbawa Biodiversity community help the forestry department to survey Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea occidentalis) nesting trees in Moyo island, Sumbawa district, West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia.

Yellow-crested cockatoo is a critically endangered species who live in Indonesia and Timor leste. Its population is believed under 7000 individuals in the wild. In the year 2000, a survey mentioning their population in Moyo island is only 10 individuals. But since 2012, sumbawa forestry authorities monitored them annually and come up with 120 cockatoos still live in moyo island.

In 2020 we help the forestry to search and collect data of cockatoo's nesting tree in moyo, which then found out that there are still many bird poaching activities happening in Moyo island. We found 10 cockatoo's nest trees, with 2 of them have just been cut down, and one tree still standing with a simple ladder attached to the tree. Pictures are in gallery.

Therefore we are eager to continue helping these cockatoos by trying to find more nest trees and watch them carefully especially during their breeding season, which is starting in February to May. That breeding season is a crucial period, since the poachers usually took the chicks and hand raise it a while before sell them to big cities. So as those chick getting bigger the price will get higher but it remain tame.

We will use the money come from your donation to fund cockatoo's nest trees survey, cockatoos breeding behavior observation, and to protect the nest trees in Moyo island. Especially during their breeding season.