Despite discovering an unexpected haven among Hong Kong’s tall buildings, critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoos now struggle to find a home, just like their human neighbors. The snow-white birds, whose crests sparkle like golden crowns, are native to East Timor and Indonesia and squawk through the Asian financial center’s urban parks. Although there are just 2,000 mature birds in the species’ global wild population, they account for about 10% of it.
Because typhoons and government tree chopping for public safety are causing the cockatoos, which nest in tree cavities, to lose their natural nesting places in old trees, research indicates that the city’s cockatoo population has stalled. The illicit pet trade and climate change are two further global stresses on cockatoos.
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The project’s lead, Astrid Andersson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, reported that two birds had already taken up residence in a nest box that her team had affixed to a tree on her campus, which is the oldest university in the city. By the end of the year, she hopes to have 10 boxes installed throughout Hong Kong Island, and in the upcoming years, she hopes to increase that number to 50. The yellow-crested cockatoo, which was once common throughout island chains from central to eastern Indonesia and East Timor, is now extinct on many islands and barely surviving on others.
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