North Dandalup Important Bird Area comprises a highly fragmented 76 km² tract of land lying about 50 km south of Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 in the Peel region of south-west Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It is named after the nearby small town of North Dandalup

North Dandalup, Western Australia

North Dandalup is a small town in the Peel region of Western Australia along the South Western Highway between Serpentine and Pinjarra. Its local government area is the Shire of Murray...

.

Description

The Important Bird Area

Important Bird Area

An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

 (IBA) boundaries are defined by remnant native vegetation, mainly eucalypt

Eucalypt

Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...

 open forest and woodland, within a 6 km foraging radius of non-breeding season roost sites for black cockatoos

Calyptorhynchus

Described by French naturalist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest in 1826, the genus Calyptorhynchus has five species. They are all mostly black in colour, and the taxa may be differentiated partly by size and partly by small areas of red, grey and yellow plumage especially in the tail feathers...

. The IBA consists of all blocks of native vegetation greater than one hectare in water catchment areas

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

, state forest

State forest

A state forest is a forest that is administered or protected by some agency of a sovereign state.The precise application of the term varies by jurisdiction...

s, nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

s and private land. Part of the IBA lies within the Serpentine National Park

Serpentine National Park

Serpentine National Park is a national park in Western Australia , located on the Darling Scarp, approximately 50 km southeast of Perth....

. The region has a Mediterranean climate

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

.

Birds

The site has been identified by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 as an IBA because it supports at least 765 Long-billed Black Cockatoos with roosting sites and associated foraging habitat outside the breeding season, as well as small numbers of Short-billed Black Cockatoos and populations of Red-capped Parrot

Red-capped Parrot

The Red-capped Parrot , also called the Pileated Parakeet , and King Parrot locally in Western Australia, is an Australian species of broad-tailed parrot related to the Rosellas.First described by German naturalist Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, from a collection in Albany,...

s, Rufous Treecreeper

Rufous Treecreeper

The Rufous Treecreeper is a species of bird in the Climacteridae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.-References:...

s, Red-winged Fairywrens, Western Spinebill

Western Spinebill

The Western Spinebill, Acanthorhynchus superciliosus, is a honeyeater found in the heath and woodland of south-western Western Australia. It ranges between long, and weighs around . It has a black head, gray back and wings, with a red band behind its neck and from its throat to its breast. There...

s, Western Yellow

Western Yellow Robin

The Western Yellow Robin is a species of bird in the Petroicidae family. It is endemic to Australia, and sometimes known overseas as the Grey-breasted Robin....

 and White-breasted Robin

White-breasted Robin

The White-breasted Robin is a species of bird in the Petroicidae family. It is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. Unlike many other Australian robins, it lacks bright colours in its plumage, being a predominantly greyish bird with white underparts. Like many other Australian passerines...

s, and Western Thornbill

Western Thornbill

The Western Thornbill is a species of bird in the Pardalotidae family.It is endemic to Australia.Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation....

s. The forest redtail subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo , also known as Banksian- or Banks' Black Cockatoo, is a large cockatoo native to Australia. This species was known as Calyptorhynchus magnificus for many decades until the current scientific name was officially conserved in 1994. It is more common in the drier parts...

(Calyptorhynchus banksii naso) is regularly recorded in the IBA.