Nectar to our ears

SINGING LESSONS HELP REVERSE HONEYEATERS DECLINE

Biologists in Australia have been enrolling male Regent Honeyeaters into singing lessons after discovering the birds were being rejected by the females, resulting in a failure to mate.

Normally recognised by their beautiful quiet, flute-like, metallic ringing call, these already critically endangered birds, once prolific across South-East Australia have plummeted in numbers to fewer than 300 in the wild, due to the loss of 85% of their eucalyptus woodland habitat, They have thus become a 'flagship species' for conservation in the threatened open Box-Ironbark forests of Victoria and NSW on which they depend. Scientists discovered that there weren't enough older male birds to pass their love-songs onto the juveniles, who were instead imitating the songs of other species, with disastrous results.

Taronga Conservation Society behavioural ecologist Dr Ben Pitcher said his organisation's captive breeding program had released a large number in recent years. but they don't have the same learning experience that they would have had in the wild in naturally larger flocks. So, using wild captured adults as teachers, assisted by recordings played through speakers the captive bred birds have been learning to pick up new tunes before being released to form mixed flocks with the wild birds. Thankfully, already they are noting some degree of success. "We did a review of 300 birds we released into the wild and found those that had been exposed to some tutoring, look like they had better survival post-release than birds that hadn't", he said.

Photo credit: Paul Fahy, Taronga Conservation Society