At the entrance to Wyperfeld National Park in north-west Victoria, more than a dozen pink cockatoos are perched on Aleppo pines like Christmas decorations - a misleadingly cheerful scene, considering these aren't the native conifers they depend on for nesting and food. Inside the park, 70% of the cockatoo's core habitat - a region known as 'pine plains' - was torched in January's bushfires, leaving charcoal shadows and empty space.
Meet Lophochroa leadbeateri, an endangered bird formerly known as Major Mitchell's cockatoo, but ecologist Dr. Victor Hurley prefers 'flame-crested' or simply 'flamin' cockatoos,' referencing their fiery red-and-yellow crest and salmon-pink underwings. These birds rely on ancient slender cypress pines (Callitris gracilis) for breeding hollows - trees must be at least 85 years old, ideally 125 years or more. Very large, old pines were already vanishingly rare after land clearing and major fires in 2014 destroyed 97% of known cavity-bearing trees in the area, and now the 2025-26 bushfires have torched 440,000 hectares across Victoria - larger than the Black Saturday area - including 59,000 hectares in Wyperfeld.
The fires hit other endangered birds hard: eastern bristlebirds lost 82% of their habitat at Howe Flat near Mallacoota, with a 30% population decrease; in South Australia, Deep Creek fires affected half the habitat for western beautiful firetail and Mt Lofty Ranges southern emu-wren. At Wyperfeld, the largest Victorian breeding site for pink cockatoos, only a handful of the 178 large old native pines within the burnt area remain.
Enter Hurley and the Mallee Woodpeckers, a volunteer band that's spent countless hours monitoring birds and building artificial hollows. Early proof-of-concept involved a repurposed power pole with a strapped-on hollow log - MacGyvered in 2009. Modern versions are chainsaw-carved into dead standing trees: a slice removed, a 20cm-wide cavity hollowed, and the outer bark replaced for weatherproofing. Parks Victoria has added about 150 new hollows, and rangers are planting more slender cypress pines to replace lost ones. 'Pink cockatoos are one of the highlights of Wyperfeld,' says area chief ranger Will Trimble, who's excited to see birds investigating hollows even during construction.
Barengi Gadjin Land Council, representing local traditional owners, calls the habitat destruction a 'major concern.' 'The pink cockatoo features in our stories,' says on-Country manager Colin Gorton, but 'it will be many years before the trees, lost to the fires, will be able to support the population.' Volunteer Michael Gooch, who runs wildlife tours next to the park, notes the birds are a 'massive drawcard' for birdwatchers seeking the 'Mallee trinity' - pink cockatoos, regent parrots, and malleefowl. The next cohort of pines sprouted in the 1990s, still 50 years from being suitable for nesting, though younger trees serve as food.
Environmental scientist Jane White, another Mallee Woodpecker volunteer, explains the reciprocal arrangement: cockatoos disperse pine seeds while excavating hollows that benefit lizards, mammals, and other birds. 'They're invested in their community,' she says. 'They're helping with providing houses and food and shelter.' Fiona Murdoch of Friends of Mallee Conservation, who has 'pinkies' on her property, feels 'pretty shattered' by the loss of centuries-old trees. 'They're not coming back in my lifetime,' she says. 'We can't magic up a tree, but you can build a habitat hollow.'