‘Unicorn with wings’: Birdwatchers dazzled by remarkable white feathered Baudin’s black cockatoo

A critically endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo has dazzled onlookers across the South West with its plumage of white feathers.

The remarkable cockatoo gets its unique colouring from leucism — a rare condition in animals causing them to lose pigmentation in their skin, hair and feathers.

The bird has been known to many around the Margaret River region and trying to capture it on film has been a passion of Margaret River Discovery Tours owner and operator Sean Blocksidge.

“I’d been trying for years to find her as she has quite a range across the region, I’d been asking people who’d seen her is she really that distinctive among the flock, and they’d all said yes,” he said.

“Nothing quite prepared me for how distinctive — the contrast is quite remarkable as she flies among the flock.”

Mr Blocksidge managed to finally encounter the cockatoo earlier this month capturing her, her partner and the whole flock at Gathered Organics farm shop.

“I dropped everything and was there in a flash,” he said.

“I spent 45 amazing minutes with her — watching her fly through the vines and bush, nibble on leftover grapes, drink from the rain, and just, be.”

With estimates from the Australian Conservation Foundation indicating there are fewer than 15,000 Baudin’s black cockatoos left in the wild, Mr Blocksidge said it was already one of the rarest birds on the planet.

Her colouring makes her even more remarkable,” he said.

“Like spotting a unicorn — with wings.

“It went nuts on the socials, that’s remarkable for my small little social account,” Mr Blocksidge said.