When wildlife photographer Richard Shaw spotted a rare regent honeyeater on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, he was not sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
The species is critically endangered, and it is estimated that there are fewer than 300 wild birds remaining.
“My first thought was, ‘Is that what I think it is?'” he said.
“I’ve never seen [a regent honeyeater] before in the wild … it was just such an exciting thing to see … it’s something I will remember for a long time.“
A regent honeyeater in the Western Plains Zoo captive breeding enclosure. (Supplied: Rick Stevens)
Singing to a different tune
BirdLife Australia’s regent honeyeater recovery advisor Mick Roderick said the sighting at Lake Cathie, south of Port Macquarie, was encouraging for the species, but sparked concern as the regent honeyeater was not with any others.
It was instead interacting closely with a little wattlebird, and was recorded mimicking its calls, underscoring concerns the regent honeyeater is slowly losing its unique song.
“Some regent honeyeaters, in particular lone males that aren’t associating with other regent honeyeaters, are singing the songs of other birds, particularly larger honeyeaters, and that’s exactly what is happening with this bird at Lake Cathie,” Mr Roderick said.
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“It’s symptomatic of the fact there’s so few regent honeyeaters left across the landscape … they aren’t picking up the song of their species.“
Mr Roderick said regent honeyeaters were once common across south-eastern Australia, ranging from Brisbane to Adelaide, but their numbers and range had “drastically” reduced.
“We now suspect that regent honeyeaters are almost entirely within NSW and the majority of birds are within striking distance of the Greater Blue Mountains,” he said.
Mick Roderick says the recent release of captive-bred regent honeyeaters is showing signs of success. (ABC Newcastle: Keely Johnson)
Saving the honeyeater’s ‘love song’
Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) and the Taronga Conservation Society Australia have been working for several years to restore the regent honeyeaters’ traditional song, as part of a long-running captive breeding program.
Recently, they started to have some success.
A regent honeyeater feeds its fledgling in woodland in the NSW Hunter region. (Supplied: Mick Roderick)
Joy Tripovich, a behavioural ecologist with the conservation society, said the song was a cultural trait vital to the species’ breeding success, territory marking and social cohesion.
“It’s really important for reproducing that they are able to sing the song that will allow the male to attract the female … it’s sad, it’s losing its love song,”
Dr Tripovich said.
Joy Tripovich is part of a team helping teach juvenile regent honeyeaters their unique song. (Supplied: Joy Tripovich)
Dr Tripovich said researchers first began trying to teach captive male regent honeyeaters their song during the 2020-21 breeding season.
She said in the first year, the team played the recorded songs to young regent honeyeaters, and in more recent seasons, two wild male birds were brought in to help teach juvenile males how to sing.
“The simplest way that we’ve actually cracked this code is by just mimicking what happens in nature, by having a tutor, a wild bird, next to the youngsters, so they had direct interactions,” Dr Tripovich said.
A regent honeyeater, part of the captive breeding program. (Supplied: Rick Stevens)
“It’s pretty remarkable … the first time it happened the smiles on people’s faces were just amazing because you knew you’d just managed to capture this wild song.“
They also refined their “classroom” setting.
“Just like a classroom, in a room with fewer students in it, the students were learning more,” Dr Tripovich said.
“So in the third year … we knew that with four or five students per tutor, the message was getting relayed in a better way.”
Regent honeyeaters were released in the lower Hunter in October 2025. (Supplied: DCCEEW/ A.Pike)
The wild song the birds are being taught is known as the Blue Mountains Typical, a song no longer being observed in full in the wild.
“The wild call is changing and becoming a clipped call,” Dr Tripovich said.
“We are releasing the birds that can actually sing into the wild, with the hope that wild calls can be re-established.”