Hand built Stoneware Sculpture Height: 650mm Private Collection The critically endangered Regent Honeyeater is losing its song culture due to the bird’s rapidly declining population. If they are unable to learn how to sing correctly, it seriously impacts their ability to communicate. They learn to sing by associating with older birds of the same species. They risk losing this skill if older birds become too rare and their chances of mating are reduced. Females will avoid males that sing unusual songs. A study found that places where there are still a reasonable number of regent honeyeaters, males sang rich and complex songs. Where the birds were rare, males sang simplified or ‘totally incorrect’ songs. This lack of ability to communicate with their own species is unprecedented in a wild animal. Honeyeaters are now so rare that some young males never find an older male teacher. Research shows that regent honeyeaters born in captivity have totally different songs to wild birds. These birds once roamed in huge flocks between Adelaide and Queensland’s central coast, tracking eucalyptus blossom and as recently as the 1950’s were a common sight in Sydney and Melbourne but are now extremely rare in both cities. Extensive postwar land clearing has destroyed regent honeyeater habitat and caused the population to plummet. Most breeding activity is now restricted to the Blue Mountains and northern tablelands in NSW.
4 Regent Honeyeaters
