Food for the Future: Identifying and Prioritising Feeding Habitat for South‐Eastern Glossy Black‐Cockatoos to Guide Strategic Ecological Restoration in North‐Eastern NSW

ABSTRACT Habitat loss and fragmentation are causing major global biodiversity declines. Strategic ecological restoration can mitigate native vegetation decline, and is especially important for fauna with habitat and dietary specialisations, for which restoring key ecosystem features may be more critical than increasing revegetated area. The nationally threatened south‐eastern glossy black‐cockatoo ( Calyptorhynchus lathami lathami ) occurs in forests and woodlands of eastern Australia. It has declined due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Climate change‐driven increases in fire frequency and severity now threaten the remaining habitat. Glossy black‐cockatoos are dietary specialists, relying exclusively on she‐oak seeds ( Allocasuarina spp., Casuarina spp.), a food resource highly sensitive to fire. Following extensive feeding habitat loss during the 2019–2020 Black Summer fires, improving food security for this species, including via strategic ecological restoration, is a conservation priority. We investigated relationships between soils, vegetation types and glossy black‐cockatoo observations in north‐eastern New South Wales, and used these relationships to prioritise areas for feeding habitat restoration. Vegetation types containing Allocasuarina species on red or yellow podzolic soils had disproportionately high numbers of glossy black‐cockatoo observations, including feeding records. These results support earlier reports and recent mechanistic studies linking geology and soil properties to she‐oak cone productivity. The Black Summer fires severely burnt 19% of high‐value vegetation‐soil combinations in north‐eastern New South Wales, causing a substantial, sudden loss of glossy black‐cockatoo food resources. We developed a spatial prioritisation framework to guide ecological restoration planning, that integrates preferred soil‐vegetation combinations with other design considerations. The spatial prioritisation, combined with practical planting design guidance, was made available to landholders through local government portals and Landcare groups. Our study demonstrates how ecological understanding can be translated into strategic restoration guidance, providing a practical framework for improving restoration outcomes for a threatened dietary specialist under climate‐driven fire regime changes.