Cataby Important Bird Area is a 314 ha tract of land lying about 2 km south of the town of Cataby

Cataby, Western Australia

Cataby is a tiny settlement located some 170 km north of Perth, Western Australia on the Brand Highway. The area was apparently once called West Dandaragan , with the town of Dandaragan located 17 km to the east....

, adjacent to the Brand Highway

Brand Highway

Brand Highway is a 362 kilometre main highway linking the northern outskirts of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, to the port city of Geraldton in Western Australia's Mid West region. Together with North West Coastal Highway, it forms part of the Western Australian coastal link to the...

, in the Wheatbelt region of 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 has been classified 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 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) because it supports up to 24 breeding pairs of Short-billed Black Cockatoo, an endangered species that nests in remnant patches of 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...

 woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 and isolated paddock trees, and feeds in native shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

s. The area also supports the restricted-range Western Corella

Western Corella

The Western Corella formerly known as the Western Long-billed Corella, is a species of white cockatoo endemic to south-western Western Australia.-Taxonomy:...

 and a globally significant population of the Regent Parrot

Regent Parrot

The Regent Parrot is a bird of the parrot family . It has predominantly yellow plumage with a green tail. The bird is found primarily in eucalyptus groves and other wooded areas of subtropical southwestern Australia, as well as to a smaller area of subtropical and temperate southeastern Australia...

.