What is a regent honeyeater?
The regent honeyeater is a critically endangered black-and-yellow honeyeater of southeastern Australia. Only a few hundred are thought to survive in the wild.
Regent honeyeaters have a black head and neck, pale bare skin around the eye and black feathers edged with bright yellow on the wings and tail. They feed on nectar from flowering eucalypts such as yellow box, white box and ironbark, along with insects.
Once common in woodlands from Queensland to South Australia, they declined as most of their box-ironbark habitat was cleared for farming. They follow the flowering of trees, moving across large areas.
Losing their song
With so few birds left, young males struggle to find older males to learn from. Research published in 2021 found that many wild males now sing the wrong songs, copying other species, which may make them less attractive to females.
Taronga Zoo breeds regent honeyeaters for release, and zoo staff have even played recordings of wild songs to captive birds.
Important breeding areas include the Capertee Valley and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
Did You Know?
Volunteers have planted hundreds of thousands of trees to restore regent honeyeater habitat.