Trends of environmental change are influencing the behavior of many species across the world, while highly mobile species are disproportionately impacted by climate change and human modification. Here, we investigate the mechanisms behind climate change effects on the reproductive traits of highly mobile, West Australian bird taxa, the forest red‐tailed black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii naso (FRTBC). Using a dataset of annual breeding frequency spanning 19 yr, in combination with hydrological, climatological, and remotely sensed data, we modeled the effects of environmental variation on the annual breeding frequency of FRTBCs. We found several significant relationships between annual breeding frequency of FRTBCs and environmental variation. While the model, which included a proxy for the availability of the cockatoo's primary food source and the previous season's rain, explained 49% of annual breeding frequency, there were also direct and indirect effects of heatwaves and forest productivity. Forest red‐tailed black cockatoo breeding appears to be linked to the spatiotemporal availability of its primary food sources, the fruit from the tree species, marri Corymbia calophylla and jarrah Eucalyptus marginata. However, Western Australia is experiencing significant climate change, with increases in temperature and declines in rainfall altering the phenologies of these species, while declining rainfall is affecting the vegetation structure of the region. As drought events and temperatures are anticipated to increase over the region, it is expected that the food resources during the breeding season for cockatoos will become increasingly limited in time and space, thus threatening the persistence of this iconic species. This scenario is likely to be representative of many other situations where wide‐ranging species rely on patchy food resources in a changing environment. As global biodiversity is increasingly threatened, this study presents timely evidence illustrating how climate change is affecting the persistence of a threatened, mobile species, and what the implications are for mobile species around the world.

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Drought is an extremely serious natural hazard in Australia, associated with financial hardship and damage to soils and vegetation. With droughts expected to become more frequent and more severe as climate change progresses, it is increasingly important to identify drought risk and assess community-level drought resilience at the appropriate spatial, temporal and administrative scale for decision-making. Here, we have used spatial multi-criteria analysis to identify regional priority areas for the implementation of drought resilience interventions or investment in southwest Western Australia (WA). This region is home to the WA grains industry, the largest agricultural contributor to the economy and one of the regions most impacted by climate change in Australia to date, experiencing consistent reduction in rainfall and recurrent drought over the last several decades. We modelled drought exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity for the region, incorporating spatially explicit climate, environmental, social and economic data, and produced a suite of priority areas maps, ground-truthed through a participatory mapping process. The maps highlight the northern and eastern wheatbelt as areas at high risk from drought, and have the potential to serve as a powerful tool for local-level drought resilience decision-making. Most of the data we used are publicly available, and the vulnerability framework applied allows for wide replication within and beyond southwest WA.

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