CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

The Regent Honeyeater is considered critically endangered with only 200-350 birds left in the wild.

A 2018 study ranked the Regent Honeyeater seventh in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.

A March 2021 research study warned that the rapid decline in the rare songbird means its young are struggling to learn mating calls as adults disappear, which could further strain conservation efforts to avoid extinction.

The complexity of their songs has declined, and 12 percent of males were found to be singing other species’ songs, including the currawong and eastern rosella.

According to one of the authors of the study, this loss of song can reduce the birds’ ability to find a mate, and, if they do, the female is less likely to lay an egg.

There is a captive breeding program in place at Tooronga Park Zoo in Western NSW which has successfully released some birds back into the wild but…

For Regent Honeyeaters to thrive, existing habitat must be protected and expanded.  That’s where Save Our Woodlands comes in.

With your help we are determined to protect the remaining 15% of NSW Woodlands for future generations — and stop the loss of any more species including those native only to Australia.

From the Government of NSW website:

The Regent Honeyeater is a flagship threatened woodland bird whose conservation will benefit a large suite of other threatened and declining woodland fauna.

The species inhabits dry open forest and woodland, particularly Box-Ironbark woodland, and riparian forests of River She-oak.

Regent Honeyeaters inhabit woodlands that support a significantly high abundance and species richness of bird species.

These woodlands have significantly large numbers of mature trees, high canopy cover and an abundance of mistletoes.

Threats to the regent Honeyeater:

Historical loss, fragmentation, and degradation of habitat from clearing for agricultural and residential development, particularly fertile Yellow Box-White Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Woodlands.

Continuing loss of key habitat tree species and remnant woodlands from major developments (mining and agricultural), timber gathering and residential developments.

Key habitats continue to degrade from lack of recruitment of key forage species and loss of paddock trees and small remnants increasingly fragmenting the available habitat.

Sadly the decline of many bird species continues...

A deep dive into bird survey data has found that some of Australia's favourite backyard visitors considered 'common' are actually on the decline...

Species disappearing weren’t just the rare and threatened ones – some were those considered common or iconic. In several areas, the galah and kookaburra were experiencing relative declines.

Griffith University Ecologist Cathy Campbell

Every year we lose birds to cats and other predators along with cars and other vehicles and now windfarms have been added to the list.

Other causes of these declines include the loss of habitat, use of second-generation rodenticides, changing agricultural practices, climate change and more frequent droughts and bushfires.

We need to provide our bird populations with safe habitats.

It’s not too late to preserve and re-establish NSW woodlands which will go a long way to slowing and potentially stopping the decline of the iconic kookaburra and other birds.  You can help.