Helmeted Honeyeater
Encyclopedia
The Helmeted Honeyeater (Lichenostomus melanops cassidix) is a passerine
bird in the Honeyeater
family
. It is a distinctive and critically endangered subspecies
, formerly considered a full species, of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
, that exists in the wild only as a tiny relict
population in the Australia
n state of Victoria
, in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve
. It is Victoria’s only endemic bird, and was adopted as one of the state’s faunal emblem
s in 1971.
between it and the nominate subspecies L. m. melanops. This conclusion disallows L. m. gippslandicus as a taxon, and suggests that cassidix occurs more widely through West Gippsland
than is currently recognised. However genetic research, conducted on behalf of Victoria’s Helmeted Honeyeater recovery team by Hayes, does not support Schodde and Mason’s subspecific arrangement, but confirms the distinctiveness of cassidix both as a taxon and the limits of its current geographic range to the Yellingbo area.
and Western Port
catchments of central southern Victoria, in the South Eastern Highlands IBRA
bioregion
. Their range and population declined steadily through the 20th century, with the population reaching a low of 15 breeding pairs and about 50 individuals in late 1989, the year a recovery program began. Former colonies at Cockatoo
and Upper Beaconsfield
had become extinct not long before as a consequence of the Ash Wednesday bushfires
of February 1983. Following the implementation of the recovery program the population increased to a peak of about 120 individuals in 1996, but has since declined to about 20 wild breeding pairs.
The wild population of the Helmeted Honeyeater is now restricted to a five km length of remnant bushland along two streams in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve near Yellingbo
, about 50 km east of central Melbourne
, with a small colony of birds bred in captivity established near Tonimbuk
in the Bunyip State Park
within the historic range of the subspecies. Captive breeding colonies are held at Taronga Zoo
in Sydney
and at Healesville Sanctuary
, 18 km (11.2 mi) north of Yellingbo.
The birds inhabit dense riparian
vegetation along riverbanks, subject to flooding and dominated by Mountain Swamp Gum
with a dense understorey of Scented Paperbark
and Woolly Tea-tree
, and of sedge
s and tussock grasses. Historically, the honeyeaters have also occupied Manna Gum riparian forest
. Key habitat elements include the presence of decorticating (peeling) bark, closely spaced eucalypt stems and dense undergrowth
.
and aggressive towards other bird species. In areas of suitable habitat their territories are clumped into colonies with some degree of communal defence of the colony area. Pairs rarely leave their territories, though some birds wander during the non-breeding period in search of food.
s, decorated with spider
egg-sacs, and lined with soft material. The first eggs are laid in mid August and the last in mid January to late February. Although some pairs make up to nine nesting attempts during this period, three is more usual. The average clutch size is two, with new clutches often laid before the young of the previous clutch have become independent. The incubation
period is 14 days, the nestling period 10–14 days, with the chicks becoming independent about 40 days after hatching. The mean number of young raised to independence annually is 1.5 for each pair. Males undertake most nest defence activity, and share in feeding the young, while females do most of the nest building, incubation and brooding.
Once they fledge
, the young birds disperse from their parents’ territories. Females may reside temporarily near nectar flows, or near other honeyeater neighbourhoods before returning to their natal colony and mating at the beginning of the next breeding season. Males may try to establish territories next to those of their parents.
s, nectar, lerps
, honeydew
, and eucalypt
or other plant sap
(manna). They spend much time gleaning lerps from foliage, invertebrates from behind decorticating bark, and making repeated visits to places where manna is weeping from damaged eucalypt and melaleuca
branches. They may sometimes forage away from their breeding habitat on drier slopes and in heathland. Chicks are primarily fed on insects.
, and as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988). On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria it is listed as critically endangered
.
, disease
, wildfire
and climate change
, have the potential to bring the bird to extinction
. Particular threats are habitat degradation through die-off and the lack of regeneration of the Mountain Swamp Gum community, because of siltation and waterlogging, or by disease and weed invasion. Nest predation, by a suite of native and introduced predators, may also affect nest productivity.
Harassment by Bell Miner
s is known to reduce breeding success in Helmeted Honeyeaters where their territories abut Bell Miner colonies, and several former Helmeted Honeyeater colony sites, as well as other patches of suitable habitat, are currently occupied by Bell Miners, a situation managed in the Yellingbo Reserve by the selective removal of Bell Miner colonies.
of the Helmeted Honeyeater is directed at both the honeyeater population and its habitat. Population management involves routine monitoring of all breeding attempts, the protection of nests from predators, the establishment of new wild populations through the release of captive-bred birds, the supplementation of wild populations with captive-reared birds by the release of immature birds and the addition of eggs or nestlings to wild nests, and by minimising the risk of inbreeding depression
by swapping eggs and nestlings between populations. Habitat management focuses on the control of erosion and siltation in order to help reestablish a natural flood regime within the Yellingbo reserve, as well as to control weeds and pest animals, to revegetate degraded areas, and to rehabilitate habitat on private land adjacent to the reserve.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird in the Honeyeater
Honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
. It is a distinctive and critically endangered subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
, formerly considered a full species, of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
The Yellow-tufted Honeyeater is a passerine bird found in the south-east ranges of Australia from south-east Queensland through eastern New South Wales and across Victoria into the tip of Southeastern South Australia...
, that exists in the wild only as a tiny relict
Relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....
population in the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n state of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve
Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve
Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is a 4.6 km2 nature reserve 50 km east of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. It lies in the Upper Yarra Valley, near the towns of Yellingbo and Macclesfield...
. It is Victoria’s only endemic bird, and was adopted as one of the state’s faunal emblem
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
s in 1971.
Taxonomy
The Helmeted Honeyeater is one of four subspecies of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater. The taxonomic history of L. m. cassidix is complicated. Schodde and Mason affirm its subspecific status but suggest that there is intergradation across eastern Victoria and south-eastern New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
between it and the nominate subspecies L. m. melanops. This conclusion disallows L. m. gippslandicus as a taxon, and suggests that cassidix occurs more widely through West Gippsland
West Gippsland
West Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, extends from the southeastern limits of metropolitan Melbourne and Western Port Bay in the west to the Latrobe Valley in the east, and is bounded by the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Mount Baw Baw Plateau in the Great Dividing...
than is currently recognised. However genetic research, conducted on behalf of Victoria’s Helmeted Honeyeater recovery team by Hayes, does not support Schodde and Mason’s subspecific arrangement, but confirms the distinctiveness of cassidix both as a taxon and the limits of its current geographic range to the Yellingbo area.
Description
The Helmeted Honeyeater is the largest and most brightly coloured of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater subspecies. It has a distinctive black mask between the yellow throat, pointed yellow ear-tufts and the fixed “helmet” of golden plushlike feathers on the forehead, with a dull golden crown and nape demarcated from the dark olive-brown back and wings. The underparts are mainly olive-yellow. It is 17–23 cm (6.7–9.1 ) long, weighing 30–40 g (1.1–1.4 ), with males larger than the females.Distribution and habitat
Historically, Helmeted Honeyeaters were patchily distributed in the mid-YarraYarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
and Western Port
Western Port
Western Port, is sometimes called "Western Port Bay", is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in Victoria. Geographically, it is dominated by the two large islands; French Island and Phillip Island. Contrary to its name, it lies to...
catchments of central southern Victoria, in the South Eastern Highlands IBRA
Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts...
bioregion
Ecoregion
An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...
. Their range and population declined steadily through the 20th century, with the population reaching a low of 15 breeding pairs and about 50 individuals in late 1989, the year a recovery program began. Former colonies at Cockatoo
Cockatoo, Victoria
Cockatoo is a town in Victoria, Australia, 48 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Cardinia. At the 2006 Census, Cockatoo had a population of 4,560....
and Upper Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield, Victoria
Beaconsfield is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 46 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Cardinia...
had become extinct not long before as a consequence of the Ash Wednesday bushfires
Ash Wednesday fires
The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of up to 110 km per hour caused widespread destruction across the states...
of February 1983. Following the implementation of the recovery program the population increased to a peak of about 120 individuals in 1996, but has since declined to about 20 wild breeding pairs.
The wild population of the Helmeted Honeyeater is now restricted to a five km length of remnant bushland along two streams in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve near Yellingbo
Yellingbo, Victoria
Yellingbo is a town in Victoria, Australia, 48 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges...
, about 50 km east of central Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, with a small colony of birds bred in captivity established near Tonimbuk
Tonimbuk, Victoria
Tonimbuk is a bounded rural locality in Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Cardinia. At the 2006 Census, Tonimbuk had a population of 275.-References:...
in the Bunyip State Park
Bunyip State Park
Bunyip State Park is a state park east of Melbourne, near the town of Gembrook. The area was used for logging from 1898 until 1990, and was turned into a state park two years later...
within the historic range of the subspecies. Captive breeding colonies are held at Taronga Zoo
Taronga Zoo
Taronga Zoo is the city zoo of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Officially opened on 7 October 1916, it is located on the shores of Sydney Harbour in the suburb of Mosman...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and at Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary
Healesville Sanctuary, or the Sir Colin MacKenzie Fauna Park, is a zoo specializing in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia, and has a history of breeding native animals. It is one of only two places to have successfully bred a platypus, the other...
, 18 km (11.2 mi) north of Yellingbo.
The birds inhabit dense riparian
Riparian zone
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by...
vegetation along riverbanks, subject to flooding and dominated by Mountain Swamp Gum
Eucalyptus camphora
Eucalyptus camphora, Mountain Swamp Gum or Broad-leaved Sally, is an Australian eucalypt. It is found in the marshes and valleys of mountainous areas of New South Wales and southern Victoria....
with a dense understorey of Scented Paperbark
Melaleuca squarrosa
Melaleuca squarrosa, the Scented Paperbark, is a plant native to south-eastern Australia. It is a summer-flowering shrub growing to about 5 m in height, occasionally a small tree up to 12 m, with papery bark.-Distribution:...
and Woolly Tea-tree
Leptospermum lanigerum
Leptospermum lanigerum is a shrub, commonly called the Woolly Tea-tree, which is endemic to Australia. Plants are found growing in montane eucalypt forest and coastal areas in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria....
, and of sedge
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
s and tussock grasses. Historically, the honeyeaters have also occupied Manna Gum riparian forest
Riparian forest
A riparian forest is a forested area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. -Etymology:...
. Key habitat elements include the presence of decorticating (peeling) bark, closely spaced eucalypt stems and dense undergrowth
Undergrowth
Undergrowth usually refers to the vegetation in a forest, which can obstruct passage through the forest. The height of undergrowth is usually considered to be 0.3 – 3 m . Undergrowth can also refer all vegetation in a forest, which isn't in the canopy....
.
Behaviour
Helmeted Honeyeaters are sedentary, territorialTerritory (animal)
In ethology the term territory refers to any sociographical area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against conspecifics...
and aggressive towards other bird species. In areas of suitable habitat their territories are clumped into colonies with some degree of communal defence of the colony area. Pairs rarely leave their territories, though some birds wander during the non-breeding period in search of food.
Breeding
Territories are about 5000 m2 in size. The breeding season is protracted, lasting from July until March. The nest is cup-shaped and placed in the outer branchlets of a tree or shrub; it is made of grass and bark, bound with cobwebCobweb
-Animals:* Cobweb or spider web, silken web made by spiders* Cobweb spider or tangle web spider, any of the many spiders in the family Theridiidae* Cobwebbing, a pattern of fine lines on the face of a horse, zebra or other equid: see horse Primitive markings...
s, decorated with spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
egg-sacs, and lined with soft material. The first eggs are laid in mid August and the last in mid January to late February. Although some pairs make up to nine nesting attempts during this period, three is more usual. The average clutch size is two, with new clutches often laid before the young of the previous clutch have become independent. The incubation
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...
period is 14 days, the nestling period 10–14 days, with the chicks becoming independent about 40 days after hatching. The mean number of young raised to independence annually is 1.5 for each pair. Males undertake most nest defence activity, and share in feeding the young, while females do most of the nest building, incubation and brooding.
Once they fledge
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
, the young birds disperse from their parents’ territories. Females may reside temporarily near nectar flows, or near other honeyeater neighbourhoods before returning to their natal colony and mating at the beginning of the next breeding season. Males may try to establish territories next to those of their parents.
Feeding
The honeyeaters eat invertebrateInvertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s, nectar, lerps
Lerp (biology)
In biology, a lerp is a structure of crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid insects as a protective cover.-Host plants:Some of the host plants on which lerp is often found include:* Eucalyptus dumosa...
, honeydew
Honeydew (secretion)
Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the gut's terminal opening. Honeydew is particularly common as a secretion in the Hemipteran...
, and eucalypt
Eucalypt
Eucalypts are woody plants belonging to three closely related genera:Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora.In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the...
or other plant sap
Plant sap
Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. It transports water and nutrients throughout the plant....
(manna). They spend much time gleaning lerps from foliage, invertebrates from behind decorticating bark, and making repeated visits to places where manna is weeping from damaged eucalypt and melaleuca
Melaleuca
Melaleuca is a genus of plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae known for its natural soothing and cleansing properties. There are well over 200 recognised species, most of which are endemic to Australia...
branches. They may sometimes forage away from their breeding habitat on drier slopes and in heathland. Chicks are primarily fed on insects.
Status and conservation
The Helmeted Honeyeater is listed as endangered on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places...
, and as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988). On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria it is listed as critically endangered
Critically endangered
Version 2010.3 of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 3744 Critically Endangered species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and subpopulations.Critically Endangered by kingdom:*1993 Animalia*2 Fungi*1745 Plantae*4 Protista-References:...
.
Threats
Because of the honeyeater’s small population of fewer than 100 wild birds, and very restricted distribution, several factors, such as droughtDrought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
, disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
, wildfire
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
and climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, have the potential to bring the bird to extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
. Particular threats are habitat degradation through die-off and the lack of regeneration of the Mountain Swamp Gum community, because of siltation and waterlogging, or by disease and weed invasion. Nest predation, by a suite of native and introduced predators, may also affect nest productivity.
Harassment by Bell Miner
Bell Miner
The Bell Miner, Manorina melanophrys, colloquially known as the Bellbird, is a colonial honeyeater endemic to southeastern Australia. They were given their common name because they feed almost exclusively on the dome-like coverings of certain psyllid bugs, referred to as "bell lerps," that feed on...
s is known to reduce breeding success in Helmeted Honeyeaters where their territories abut Bell Miner colonies, and several former Helmeted Honeyeater colony sites, as well as other patches of suitable habitat, are currently occupied by Bell Miners, a situation managed in the Yellingbo Reserve by the selective removal of Bell Miner colonies.
Recovery plan
Conservation managementConservation management system
A conservation management system is a procedure for maintaining a species or habitat in a particular state. It is a means whereby humankind secures wildlife in a favourable condition for contemplation, education or research, in perpetuity. It is an important topic in cultural ecology, where...
of the Helmeted Honeyeater is directed at both the honeyeater population and its habitat. Population management involves routine monitoring of all breeding attempts, the protection of nests from predators, the establishment of new wild populations through the release of captive-bred birds, the supplementation of wild populations with captive-reared birds by the release of immature birds and the addition of eggs or nestlings to wild nests, and by minimising the risk of inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression
Inbreeding depression is the reduced fitness in a given population as a result of breeding of related individuals. It is often the result of a population bottleneck...
by swapping eggs and nestlings between populations. Habitat management focuses on the control of erosion and siltation in order to help reestablish a natural flood regime within the Yellingbo reserve, as well as to control weeds and pest animals, to revegetate degraded areas, and to rehabilitate habitat on private land adjacent to the reserve.