18 Helmeted Honeyeaters set free

A corroboree in the sun just after release: making friends

Yesterday 18 captive bred Helmeted Honeyeaters from Healesville Sanctuary were released into the wild at Yellingbo, joining the 130 birds located there.

Read more here

A team of 70+ volunteers are now springing into action to help support and monitor these birds under the direction of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning's Senior Scientist Ornithology.

How can you join this dedicated team? Email us for more information.

Image: Merryn Kelly

18 Helmeted Honeyeaters released into Yellingbo

18 Helmeted Honeyeaters bred at Healesville Sanctuary were released into Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve recently; 5 on 17/9/14 and 13 on 25/9/14.

They join 90+ Helmeted Honeyeaters, plus 9 current fledglings from the 2014-15 breeding season.

Unbanded Helmeted Honeyeater - image B.Tardif

Colour leg bands, Helmeted Honeyeater - image B.Tardif

Do you live next door to Yellingbo NCR or Bunyip State Park? You may see Helmeted Honeyeaters on your property. If you do, please let us know.

Taking a photo is a great way to help us identify the bird you see. Does it have coloured bands? is it unbanded? Check out the images to see what we mean - the bands are on the legs.

Contact us here.

2011-12 breeding news

We are currently recording the highest number of breeding pairs of Helmeted Honeyeaters in Yellingbo since the 2004/2005 breeding season; 17 (there may be a couple more pairs to confirm too!). 15 fledglings have been confirmed (but one disappeared quickly). A family group has also been spotted in a 'new' section of the reserve. Healesville Sanctuary's captive breeding program also reports that 8 of the Sanctuary's 13 pairs have bred, which is a terrific result too!

The breeding season extends into February, so we are quietly hopeful of a good breeding season.

Review of the Reintroduction Strategy is underway

Much has been learnt about the Helmeted Honeyeater over the 22 years a Recovery Plan and captive breeding program has been in place. 2011 marks the start of a major review of the reintroduction strategy.

Some interesting snippets:

• Definition of success of captive bred released birds? Greater than 40% survival to 12 months after the release.
• Birds were making use of burnt habitat within 10 months of the Black Saturday bushfires
• Females never settle in their natal colony
• With habitat loss being a major issue for long-term survival, we cannot rely on conservation measures on public land being the sole answer. Private landholders play an important role
  

Radio tracking is re-established in 2011

Through Briony Mitchell, an Honours student from Monash University, radio tracking of the May 2011 captive bred released birds has been a possibility. Briony reports that 5 of the 11 birds were predated subsequent to the release. Two of these were seen to be taken by a small hawk, probably a Sparrowhawk. Another two birds are 'missing'.

Though this is disappointing, the results aren't surprising. We know that larger birds are a serious threat to small birds. When there's only a handful of Helmeted Honeyeaters in the wild, any predation is a set back.

As Peter Menkhorst, Chair Helmeted Honeyeater Recovery Team, observes "That is one reason we need large numbers of releasees for re-introductions to succeed."

The true positive coming from the radio tracking is that we can say for certain what has happened to these releasees rather than speculating. It gives the Recovery Team much more knowledge when planning for future releases.

Thanks Briony.

Image: Briony preparing to track the releasees (L), A Helmeted Honeyeater with transmitter (R)
Photographer: Emma Campbell

Microchips vs leg bands - monitoring Helmeted Honeyeaters

We are often asked during our community education talks why we don't use microchips instead of leg bands to monitor the Helmeted Honeyeaters in the wild. It's a good question. So good in fact that Healesville Sanctuary are currently undertaking a trial to determine whether it's a viable option in the future.

Read more here: http://www.zoo.org.au/Conservation/Research/Wildlife_Reintroduction/Microchip_Trial

Invitation to Members Day - 22 March 09

Members Day for the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater starts at 11am at the Rangers house, 1217 Macclesfield Road, Yellingbo. We will start with a talk by Rupert Baker, Senior Vet at Healesville Sanctuary, followed by a BYO picnic or BBQ lunch, and the unveiling of a plaque at our nursery to commemorate the contribution Steve Craig made to the formation of the Friends in 1989.

Not a member but would like to attend? You can join on the day!

All welcome.

Fire threat to Helmeted Honeyeaters - Healesville Sanctuary captive-breeding population

Emergency procedures have been activated for the threatened species area at Healesville Sanctuary. We can report that the captive breeding population of Helmeted Honeyeaters are safe and have been transported to Melbourne Zoo. Other threatened species evacuated are the Mountain Pygmy-possums, Orange-bellied Parrots and Tasmanian Devil.

Ambassadors go behind the scenes

The Friends' Ambassadors’ program with Yellingbo and Macclesfield Primary Schools involves 8 students from each school. They experience what is involved in efforts to save our endangered bird emblem and are encouraged to spread the word on what each individual can do to preserve our precious indigenous flora and fauna.

Back in June the students were driven into the reserve in 4wd’s to learn about the special habitat Helmeted Honeyeater’s require, and to gain first-hand experience of the supplementary bird feeding and monitoring program. A tour of our nursery, a presentation on the Leadbeater’s Possum and a bushwalk capped off the day.

On Tuesday 29/7/08 we took a bus to Healesville Sanctuary to meet up with Senior Keeper, Karina Cartwright, who showed us through the captive breeding areas for the Helmeted Honeyeater, Mountain Pygmy-possum, Orange-bellied Parrot, Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby and Tasmanian Devil. A really unique experience to see what goes on behind the scenes. We were very lucky to meet up with one of the sanctuary’s vets, Rupert Baker, who showed us a Mountain Pygmy-possum that he had operated on. Not many people get to see these critically endangered animals. We then headed for the Parrots in Flight exhibition with another keeper, Jason which was a great experience before we reluctantly headed home. The Ambassadors’ loved the day and learnt a lot from Karina. Here are some of their edited comments:

Kristy: "Some of the things that the keepers feed the helmeted honey eaters were millworms (sic. mealworms). Karina told us that they taste like popcorn when fried, and also a milky substance that contains dried pollens and seeds.

I think this was an excellent experience and I hope we get to do it again someday. This is a day I will never forget."

Ryan H: "We were given a challenge to find the lyre birds nest. I was one out of the three to find it was on top of a fern stump."

Harry: "The day ended like any other day except for the fact that I just had the most exiting day of the year. The next day I thought that it would be a normal day but I was crowded with people that wanted to know what I did."

Sarah: "The nest was built in the fork of a tree and it was made from emu feathers which had spider webs wrapped around it to stop it from falling apart and dingo hair on the inside to make it nice and soft for the chicks.

The sanctuary put little cameras inside the avaries. When there is a chick the camera is moved above the nest so the sanctuary can watch the chick to make sure there isn’t any problems.

I still can’t believe how lucky I was to get the chance to go into so many places the public never gets to go and do so many things! I wish I could do it again! THANK YOU FRIENDS OF THE HELMETED HONEYEATER AND HEALSVILLE SANCTUARY!"

Image: The Ambassadors are shown how the video monitoring equipment aids the recovery effort
Photograph by: S. Tardif