The Black Cockatookarak (kah-rak)

The red-tailed black cockatoo is one of Australia's most striking birds: large and glossy-black, the males carrying brilliant scarlet panels in the tail. It is found nowhere else on earth. Uniquely Australian, it is the most widely distributed of all the black cockatoos, ranging across northern, western and eastern Australia, with a smaller, isolated population in the south-east, in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.

Like all black cockatoos, it is usually heard before it is seen. Its call is a loud, harsh, rolling cry, the sound that gives the bird its Noongar name, Karak. When a crackle (flock) moves across the sky it does so unhurried, on slow, deliberate wingbeats, in no apparent rush to be anywhere.

The black cockatoo is distinctly Australian, unmistakable, and quietly powerful. It is seldom seen but often heard. Its presence is felt. It appears when the atmosphere is shifting, and it carries a sense of timing, warning, change and significance.

That is what good advice should do. And when the moment is right, it does one more thing. It makes the deal happen.

There is also a certain Australian cheek in the name: a cockatoo on the shoulder. Watchful, direct, occasionally inconvenient, but loyal to the person it sits beside. The best advisor is not there to flatter. The best advisor is there to notice what others miss, say what needs to be said, and help the owner protect and realise the value of what they have built.

Discreet, but not timid. Quiet, but not silent. Respectful, but not weak.

For many Aboriginal peoples the red-tailed black cockatoo is bound up with rain, change and the turning of seasons. The Noongar people of south-western Australia know it as Karak, a common totem, and the bird from which the red tail feathers traditionally signify leadership, worn by those who lead. Among the Gamilaraay people the red-tailed black cockatoo is said to have the power to bring rain. These are living cultural traditions belonging to the communities that hold them, and their meanings differ from one Country to the next.

We have always liked that the bird is a bringer of rain. In our own world the one who makes the deal happen, who reads the conditions, brings the parties to the table and calls the capital down, has a name too. It is the same idea, as old as the rain dance and as current as any deal that closes against the odds: someone who can summon the thing everyone has been waiting for. And like the best of them, we stand firmly on the owner's side of the table, making sure their position is understood, their value defended, and their hand the stronger for our being there.

A bird heard before it is seen, whose feathers mark out leadership, that arrives when the weather is about to turn and is trusted to bring the rain. We could not have asked for a better namesake.