Regent honeyeater
Regent honeyeater | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Meliphagidae |
Genus: | Anthochaera |
Species: | A. phrygia
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Binomial name | |
Anthochaera phrygia (Shaw, 1794)
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Distribution of the regent honeyeater, see file for more details. | |
Synonyms | |
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The regent honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia) is a
Taxonomy
First described by the English naturalist George Shaw in 1794, the regent honeyeater was moved to Anthochaera in 1827 by the naturalists Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Thomas Horsfield.[2] It was known as Xanthomyza phrygia for many years, the genus erected by William John Swainson in 1837. DNA analysis shows that its ancestry is in fact nested within the wattlebird genus Anthochaera. The ancestor of the regent honeyeater split from a lineage that gave rise to the red and yellow wattlebirds. The little and western wattlebirds arose from another lineage that diverged earlier.[3] The generic name Anthochaera derives from the Ancient Greek anthos 'flower, bloom' and khairō 'enjoy'; the specific epithet phrygia derives from Latin phrygius, referring to the people of Phrygia who were skilled in embroidery with gold.[4]
Description
The neck and head are glossy black. The breast is covered with contrasting pale yellow speckles, and the feathers in the tail and wings are black and bright yellow.
Diet
It feeds primarily on nectar from eucalyptus and mistletoe species, and to a lesser extent on insects and their honeydew. It also feeds on both native and cultivated fruit.[5]
Breeding
Breeding mostly occurs from August to January, during the southern spring and summer. The breeding season appears to correspond with the flowering of key eucalyptus and mistletoe species. Two or three eggs are laid in a cup-shaped nest.[5] Nest success, and productivity of successful nests, has been found to be low in this species, with nest surveillance revealing high predation by a range of bird and arboreal mammal species. There is also a male bias to the adult sex ratio, with an estimated 1.18 males per female.[6]
Distribution
The regent honeyeater was once common in
Most of these breeding sites were affected by the devastating 2019–2020 Australian bushfires, which will likely have a very negative effect on the already-small wild population.[11]
Important Bird Areas
BirdLife International identified the following sites as being important for regent honeyeaters in 2011:[12]
- Queensland
- New South Wales
- Brisbane Water
- Bundarra-Barraba
- Capertee Valley
- Greater Blue Mountains
- Hastings-Macleay
- Hunter Valley
- Lake Macquarie
- Mudgee-Wollar
- Richmond Woodlands
- Tuggerah
- Victoria
- Warby-Chiltern Box-Ironbark Region
In July and August 2018, pairs of birds were seen at three sites in south-eastern Queensland. A spokesman for BirdLife Australia said this was indicative of the current drought conditions in northern New South Wales placing pressure on the birds to find more favourable food sources.[13]
Conservation status
The regent honeyeater is listed as
The bird was upgraded from endangered to critically endangered nationally (under the EPBC Act) on 9 July 2015. Each state has applied its own rating to the bird under state legislation, varying from "threatened" (Victoria) to "critically endangered" (NSW).[16][14]
The Commonwealth Department of the Environment formulated a National Recovery Plan for the regent honeyeater in April 2016.[17] The 2019-2020 fires would likely push the species closer to extinction, with only about 250 of the species left in the wild at that time.[11]
A 2018 study ranked it seventh in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.[18]
A genetic study published in 2019 used hybridization RAD (hyRAD) technique on recent and museum samples from wild birds ranging over a 100-year time frame sampled throughout the historical and contemporary range, and assessing the impact of the decline on recent and current population size, structure and genetic diversity.[19] The museum sampling showed that population structure in regent honeyeaters was historically low, which remains the case despite severe fragmentation of their breeding range. Extinction may occur in this nomadic species before a detectable genomic impact of small population size is realised.
A March 2021 research study warned that the rapid decline in the rare songbird means its young are struggling to learn mating calls as adults disappear, which could further strain conservation efforts and avoid extinction.[20] The complexity of their songs have declined, and 12 per cent of males were found to be singing other species' songs,[21] including the currawong and eastern rosella. According to one of the authors of the study, this loss of song can reduced the birds' ability to find a mate, and, if they do, the female is less likely to lay an egg.[22]
Conservation efforts
A
References
Citations
- ^ . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ^ Vigors & Horsfield 1827, pp. 320-321.
- PMID 15120392.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). "Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird-names". Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ^ a b "BirdLife Australia:Regent Honeyeater". birdlife.org.au. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- S2CID 92044024.
- ^ Siossian, Emma (28 March 2019). "Conservationists push to save critically endangered regent honeyeater's only known breeding site from development". ABC Mid North Coast. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
- ^ a b Siossian, Emma (23 June 2020). "Captive-bred regent honeyeaters successfully released in Hunter Valley, giving new hope for critically endangered species". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ "Regent Honeyeater Anthochaera phrygia". Birdlife International - Datazone. 2020.
- ^ Menkhorst, Peter; Schedvin, Natasha & Geering, David (May 1999). "Regent Honeyeater (Xanthomyza phrygia) Recovery Plan 1999-2003". Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australia. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ a b BirdLife International. "Bushfires update: a message from BirdLife Australia". BirdLife. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
- ^ BirdLife International (2011). Important Bird Areas. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 2012-01-02.
- ABC News Online, 2018-08-08
- ^ a b Dept of the Environment, Commonwealth of Australia. "Anthochaera phrygia — Regent Honeyeater". www.environment.gov.au. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-643-10368-9.
- ^ "Regent Honeyeater". BirdLife. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ "National Recovery Plan for the Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia)" (PDF). Department of the Environment. April 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- PMID 31647830.
- ^ "Endangered Australian songbird 'losing its song'". CTVNews. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
- PMID 33726592.
- ^ Siossian, Emma (17 March 2021). "Regent honeyeaters are so rare that young birds aren't learning their own song". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Siossian, Emma (22 August 2020). "Released captive-bred regent honeyeater leads conservationists to wild Hunter Valley flock". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
Cited texts
- . The title page of the issue has the year 1826.
External links
- Recordings of regent honeyeater from Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology's Macaulay library
- Recordings of regent honeyeater from Graeme Chapman's sound library
- Recordings of regent honeyeater from Xeno-canto sound archive