‘They used to blacken the sky’: the siren song of the magnificent Carnaby’s cockatoo

‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Carnaby’s cockatoos in the wild, which I assumed was owing to my urban, itinerant lifestyle. But as it turns out there’s much more to it.’ Photograph: Imagevixen/Getty Images/RooM RF

A friend sent me a video of some Carnaby’s cockatoos in her backyard the other day. A family of five were feasting on the golden orbs of a native banksia, squawking and cackling among themselves, the tree bowing under their weight.

As they finished their banquet and leapt for the skies, letting out their woozy, fluting call, I felt a heat rising in my chest and my eyes welling with tears. It was a feeling somewhere between nostalgia and love. Their yearning sing-song, I realised, was the soundscape of my childhood.