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Honeyeaters from
the brink...?
With a population that has declined greatly in recent years, the Regent Honeyeater needs all the help it can get. BirdLife is excited to
announce and share that recently, its population received a huge boost with the largest-ever release of captive-bred honeyeaters into the wild.
Nearly 80 birds, were released into Chiltern–Mount Pilot National Park in north-eastern Victoria to bolster the dwindling population of
wild birds.
Click here to watch video footage of the release.
Already over 100 dedicated volunteers have contributed over 1800 hours of their time to track the birds’ movements, noting their behaviour,
what they’re feeding on, which birds they associate with. It all helps us piece together the birds’ habitat use, seasonal movement and breeding patterns.
Each honeyeater is fitted with colour bands on its legs so that individual birds can be easily identified, and some of the birds are also
wearing tiny radio-tracking devices which allow us to follow their progress. And the results have been much better than we could ever have hoped.
Some of the honeyeaters have joined up with wild birds, and they have spread through the box–ironbark forest to all corners of the Park,
and in some cases they are even forging new frontiers well beyond. And the eucalypts are flowering profusely to keep them all well fed with sweet nectar over the coming winter months.
It’s a great boost for the Regent Honeyeater, and it’s heartening to know that so many people care.Nevertheless, despite this wonderful
result, the species is still considered endangered, and even with these extra birds its population is still critically low.
There are many ways people can help the Regent Honeyeater: if you’d like to make a donation to keep the Regents flying,
click here. If you see one, let us know by calling Free Call 1800 621 056; if you’d like to help us monitor the birds you can
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Yours sincerely,
BirdLife Australia
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