Singing lessons for a bird? It seems implausible in the wondrous world of nature but that is the prospect in store for captive-bred teenage honeyeaters looking for love.
The regent honeyeater is one of Australia’s most threatened bird species and conservationists have hit a snag in their efforts to save it from extinction. They’ve discovered the captive-bred birds do not know how to sing the right love songs to attract mates.
Programs to breed rare species in captivity to pave the way for their eventual release into the wild might offer a solution to save some endangered species but it can often lack one vital component for survival – singing the right songs to declare territory and find mates, and to integrate with the flock.
Conservationists at the regent honeyeater breeding facility in New South Wales have certainly found that their charges have lost the power of song.
Fewer than 400 of the critically-endangered birds survive in the wild. A woodland species, it once flew in its thousands over northern Victoria and southern New South Wales but forest clearance and the introduction of feral animals have decimated its number.
Recent attempts to re-introduce the honeyeater to its former range also suffered a set-back with some designated forests destroyed in last year’s bushfires.
A striking yellow-and-black bird, the regent honeyeater is known for its ability to mimic the songs of not only their own kind but other species. When it flew in large flocks juveniles would always hear the calls of other honeyeaters and learn their songs. But as numbers have plummeted, scientists at Taronga Zoo’s research institute in Sydney suspect young males in the wild have forgotten how to sing their love songs, with potential knock-on effects on their ability to find a mate, and thus to breed and ensure the future of the species.
According to a report of the regent honeyeater research published in the journal Frontiers Conservation Science, fledglings get “song tutoring” in two ways; either they are played the song of adults through speakers or adult birds are placed in neighbouring aviaries within earshot.
Although poles apart on the biological and evolutionary chain, birds and humans show a remarkable similarity in their use of song and language to communicate.
Like the children of humans, young birds have to be taught communication. The ability to sing in certain ways – making sounds as diverse as “caws” in crows and “trills” in whistlers – is passed down through the genes, but the actual songs and calls have to be learned from parents.
Each spring I watch for the blue wrens and scarlet robins in my garden teaching their young the magic of bird music. Perched in the wattles and gums, the young listen intently to the sweet warbling of their parents, the juveniles cocking their heads as the adult birds hit the high notes.