Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo to start regent honeyeaters breeding program

DECEMBER 1 2019 - 4:30PM

Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo will play a key role in efforts to save one of Australia's most endangered birds.

Regent honeyeaters have moved into purpose-built habitat this week, raising hopes for the future of the species.

The zoo has started a conservation breeding program for the critically endangered species, to expand on two decades of recovery efforts by Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

In a milestone for the project, four pairs of regent honeyeaters moved into their new digs at Dubbo.

Zoo team members told of the expanded program being crucial to securing a future for the species.

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Regent honeyeaters' mysterious journey to be tracked with cutting-edge tech

ABC Goulburn Murray 

By Erin Somerville

Posted Sun at 8:06am

When Leslie Kelly heard an unusual bird call in her western Sydney garden, it was a delightful surprise to find it coming from a critically endangered bird released hundreds of kilometres away.

Key points:

Three hundred birds have been part of the regent honeyeater captive release program, but researchers are still unsure of the path the birds are taking

Bird 'backpacks' with satellite tracking tech weighing just two grams are about to be deployed

Researchers needed to wait for transmitter technology to develop to fit a bird which weighs between 35 to 50 grams

The sighting of a male regent honeyeater earlier this month, nestled among backyard grevillea and callistemon at Oxley Park, is another promising sign of recovery for the species being closely watched following a captive release program in north-east Victoria.

A photo of the Oxley Park bird capturing banding on its legs shows it had travelled at least 463 kilometres since its 2017 release in the Chiltern-Mount Pilot National Park.

This bird now boasts the fourth longest movement recorded for the captive release program, of which over 300 birds have been part of.

But researchers are still unsure of the path these small birds are taking to achieve such long journeys.

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Site of planned Hunter coal plant is endangered bird's only NSW breeding area

The regent honeyeater’s plight has blocked previous Hunter Valley development plans in the Hunter economic zone

Ben Smee

Thu 7 Mar 2019 01.09 GMTLast modified on Thu 7 Mar 2019 22.43 GMT

The site flagged for a 2,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant in the New South Wales Hunter region was the only breeding site in the state last year for the regent honeyeater, a critically endangered bird whose plight has blocked previous development plans.

Guardian Australia revealed yesterday that an agreement had been struck between the China Energy Engineering Corporation, Hong Kong-based Kaisun Holdings and a tiny Australian company, Cavcorp, to build a new coal plant.

Companies linked to Cavcorp’s sole director, Frank Cavasinni, own most of the land in the Hunter economic zone, a failed plan to stimulate local economies in the lower Hunter.

Previous plans to develop land in the HEZ failed to come to fruition because of their impact on the land, and particularly on the regent honeyeater.

In 2016 the NSW land and environment court overturned the approval for a steel plant on the grounds it would destroy the honeyeater’s habitat.

Mick Roderick, the NSW woodland bird program manager for BirdLife Australia, said the HEZ was the most important conservation property in the Hunter Valley. “It’s unparalleled in terms of the number of threatened species,” he said.

BirdLife Australia last year conducted searches for the regent honeyeater, which is estimated to have a remaining population of fewer than 400 birds. They could not find breeding sites elsewhere in the state, but observed nesting birds and chicks in the HEZ.

Roderick said the importance of the woodlands could not be overstated. “The fact that these are the only nests found so far this year shows how much trouble this species is in,” he said.

Dean Ingwersen, the national regent honeyeater recovery coordinator for BirdLife Australia, said the HEZ was “a critical piece of the conservation puzzle”.

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Rare regent honeyeater found in the Burragorang Valley

Ilsa Cunningham

Local News

The regent honeyeater, a bird under threat of extinction, has been found in the Burragorang Valley which environmentalists say will be inundated if the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam for flood mitigation goes ahead.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) discovered 21 birds and seven nests in the area late last year, publishing their findings in a report released last week.

“The Burragorang is a really important piece of the jigsaw for the Blue Mountains population,” said lead researcher Ross Crates.

“The birds are so restricted in where they will breed. They need trees in blossom to breed.”

Being chased away by bigger birds also made breeding problematic.

Australia-wide, only between 200 to 500 regent honeyeaters remain, Mr Crates said.

“If we are to have any chance of saving regent honeyeaters from extinction, we must act now. We must protect all existing breeding habitat, restore lost breeding habitat and protect nests.”

Mr Crates and his colleagues from ANU’s Difficult Bird Research Group surveyed more than 5000 sites between 2015 and 2017 to locate this rare species.

In addition to the new breeding site found in the Burragorang Valley, another new site was found in the Severn River in northern NSW. 

Continued