For the first time in 42 years, critically endangered helmeted honeyeaters have returned to Cardinia in south-eastVictoria, where they were found until the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.
Helmeted honeyeatersare charismatic, energetic and curious, according to Dr Kim Miller, the manager of threatened species at Healesville sanctuary.
Even though the birds can be quite territorial, they’re social and will shake their gold and black feathers in “a really beautiful greeting to each other”.
Twenty-one birds captive-bred at the sanctuary were released into forest on Bunurong country where researchers will monitor them to see if they breed and can establish themselves as a new wild population.
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“The location at Cardinia has some really good habitat features that helmeted honeyeaters require,” said Miller, who has worked with the species for a decade.
“It has the right vegetation structure and some of the food plants that they need. That combination is hard to come by.”
Fewer than 250 helmeted honeyeaters remain in the world. Miller said 99% of the species’ habitat had been wiped out across its range and genetic diversity was a problem because the remaining wild birds were incredibly isolated.
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One remnant wild population can be found at Yellingbo nature conservation reserve in the Upper Yarra Valley. A second wild population is found at Yarra Ranges national park, where scientists working with the decades-long conservation breeding program began releasing birds in 2021.
The program has been releasing birds every year since 1995, mostly to boost numbers at Yellingbo. A couple of populations introduced at other sites have been unsuccessful.
“Releasing species into new locations, there’s no guarantee of success,” Miller said. “The recovery team has been working really hard for more than a decade in finding suitable sites that can support a population of helmeted honeyeaters.”
Miller said researchers planned to release more birds at the Cardinia site over the next few years to try to increase their numbers and genetic diversity.
A radio transmitter has been attached to each of the birds for temporary tracking. Miller said it would fall off after a few weeks, after which each bird would be monitored over the long term via the unique leg bands they had been fitted with.
Zoos Victoria’s helmeted honeyeater field officer, Dr Nick Bradsworth, is at the site to feed and monitor the birds for the first few weeks.
“To see them flying around and squabbling with each other where they would have been doing this over 40 years ago, it feels like the right thing,” he said.
“This is just the start. We are just going to keep building from here. Hopefully we can create even more populations throughout eastern Victoria through their former range, so our bird faunal emblem can thrive for years to come.”