How do you do, cockatoo?

Icons of the bush and protected by federal law, red-tailed black cockatoos are beloved across their native Australia, but perhaps most of all in the state of Western Australia. Annually since 2009, hundreds of Aussies from the region have volunteered for the Great Cocky Count—a wonderful example of citizen science during which volunteers observe and tally cockatoos at sunset on a selected day. This single-serving census gives researchers a large pool of data gathered from hundreds of distinct roost sites, which they can put together to help track populations year after year.