A record-breaking Regent Honeyeater release season

2025 NSW Regent Honeyeater release update

A total of 69 zoo-bred Regent Honeyeaters were released on Wonnarua Country last month – in NSW’s largest combined release of the Critically Endangered species to date.

The birds were released into the Tomalpin Woodlands in October, one of many places they could once be seen in flocks of hundreds. But ongoing land clearing has driven the Regent Honeyeater to the edge of extinction, and fewer than 300 birds now remain in the wild.

A Spotted Gum sanctuary

Today, the spotted gum-ironbark forests of the Tomalpin Woodlands are the largest remaining woodland on the floor of the NSW Hunter Valley – and a key breeding stronghold for some of Australia’s most threatened woodland birds.

“The Tomalpin Woodlands are probably the most important site for Regent Honeyeaters today,” said Mick Roderick, BirdLife Australia’s Regent Honeyeater Recovery Advisor.

“It’s a privilege to be able to help save this bird from extinction by supplementing the drastically small population on Wonnarua Country.”

Owned by Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council, this ecologically and culturally significant site is renowned for its rich breeding and feeding habitat and abundance of flowering gums.

And with Regent Honeyeater breeding season coinciding with another strong eucalypt blossoming in the Lower Hunter Valley, there are high hopes for the future of one of Australia’s rarest birds.

“As some of these birds flew out of the [release] tents, we actually saw males displaying to females. So hopefully they’ll head off and start building a nest, which is really, really exciting,” Mick said.

“We have seen females from previous releases pairing with wild male Regent Honeyeaters and breeding successfully, which is the truest sign of success for the team.”

The Tomalpin Woodlands are also home to a world-first mistletoe restoration project. Here, our Woodland Birds team and Mindaribba are working with arborists to plant thousands of mistletoe seeds on the upper branches of Spotted Gums to restore critical habitat and help these forests recover from fire.

30 years (and counting!)

It’s the sixth large-scale release in NSW and the fourth flock of zoo-bred birds released into the Tomalpin Woodlands, as part of a national recovery effort to help boost the wild population of this Critically Endangered species.

The record release comes as the Regent Honeyeater breeding and release program celebrates 30 years since the first birds arrived at Taronga Zoo in 1995. Since then, the Regent Honeyeater Recovery Team has released nearly 500 zoo-bred birds into the wild.

Led by BirdLife Australia, Taronga Conservation Society Australia and the NSW Government’s Saving our Species program, the NSW Regent Honeyeater breeding and release program is giving Regent Honeyeaters a second chance.

With so few birds left in the wild and most of their population now confined to NSW, captive breeding and releases could mean the difference between extinction and survival for these remarkable birds.

Eye to the skies

Regent Honeyeaters are a highly-mobile species, known to cover great distances in search of nectar. To help track their movements, the birds were fitted with a unique combination of coloured leg bands and tiny, non-invasive radio transmitters designed to break after 10 weeks.

In the weeks since the release, the team has been closely monitoring the behaviour and survival of the birds in the park, where they’ve recorded a flurry of activity.

But with some birds expected to travel beyond the Hunter, members of the public are urged to keep an eye out for Regent Honeyeaters in their backyards and beyond.

Report a Regent

If you’re lucky enough to see a Regent Honeyeater in the wild, please report your sighting using our contact form – along with any photos and details of visible leg bands.

All observations are valuable in helping us track their movements and survival – and play an important role in informing and supporting our ongoing conservation efforts

To help distinguish between Regent Honeyeaters and commonly confused species, check out our Regent Honeyeater ID guide

Stay tuned – we’ll be sharing an exciting update before Christmas!

Acknowledgements:

The NSW Regent Honeyeater breeding and release program is a conservation partnership between the NSW Government’s Saving our Species Program, BirdLife Australia and Taronga Conservation Society Australia, with additional support from NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian National University.

This Regent Honeyeater release was coordinated by BirdLife Australia, Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council, Taronga Conservation Society Australia and Hunter Local Land Services.