Know Before You Go

Honeyeaters belong to the Meliphagidae family, which includes 187 species, half of which are found in Australia. These small to medium-sized birds have a diet that consists of nectar, insects and fruit. Many genera have a fringed tongue, built for absorbing nectar as they flit between perches, even hanging upside down to access tasty flowers. Honeyeaters are usually found in riparian forests and wet lowland sites where food sources and nesting sites are abundant. Female regent honeyeaters will typically lay two to three eggs in nests made from plant material that are bound with spiderwebs. The male stays close to the female as she incubates the eggs for two weeks. After the chicks hatch, both parents care for the young until they leave the nest two weeks later.

Some populations of honeyeaters are declining as a result of habitat destruction from land clearing for agriculture, housing development and fires. The regent honeyeater, once abundant in south-eastern Australia, is now critically endangered. Their population has been decimated by the loss of over 90 percent of their preferred woodland habitats; only 300 remain across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Only the male regent honeyeaters sing a full song, which they use during courtship rituals and territory defense. Because fathers are tasked with rearing offspring and chasing unwelcome juveniles from their sites, sons do not learn songs from their fathers. Instead, sons learn from the other adult males in the area.

Biologists have observed a terrifying trend regarding regent honeyeater fitness. Due to the lack of adult males, young honeyeaters are unknowingly learning the songs of birds from different species. According to recent data, roughly one quarter of the male population learned songs from other bird species, making it difficult to find a partner to procreate with. Conservationists are currently experimenting with captive regent honeyeaters to see if they will learn the species-specific songs via voice recordings.