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The helmeted honeyeater (''Lichenostomus melanops cassidix'') is a
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...
bird in the
honeyeater The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New G ...
family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
. It is a distinctive and critically endangered
subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
of the
yellow-tufted honeyeater The yellow-tufted honeyeater (''Lichenostomus melanops'') is a passerine bird found in the south-east ranges of Australia. A predominantly black and yellow honeyeater, it is split into four subspecies. Taxonomy The yellow-tufted honeyeater was ...
, that exists in the wild only as a tiny relict population in the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
n state of Victoria, in the
Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve Established in 1965, the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is located 45 km east of Melbourne in the Upper Yarra Valley, near the towns of Yellingbo, Victoria, Yellingbo, Launching Place, Victoria, Launching Place, Yarra Junction, Victo ...
. It is Victoria's only
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
bird, and was adopted as one of the state's official symbols.


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 Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
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.


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 long, weighing , with males larger than the females.


Distribution and habitat

Historically, helmeted honeyeaters were patchily distributed in the mid- Yarra and Western Port catchments of central southern Victoria, in the South Eastern Highlands
IBRA The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA) is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian government's Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities. It was deve ...
bioregion A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
. 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 69 bushland along two streams in the
Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve Established in 1965, the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is located 45 km east of Melbourne in the Upper Yarra Valley, near the towns of Yellingbo, Victoria, Yellingbo, Launching Place, Victoria, Launching Place, Yarra Junction, Victo ...
near Yellingbo, about 50 km east of central
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...
, 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 Taronga Zoo is a zoo located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in the suburb of Mosman, on the shores of Sydney Harbour. The opening hours are between 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning 'beautiful water view'. It ...
in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
and at Healesville Sanctuary, north of Yellingbo.Menkhorst (2008a), p.4. The birds inhabit dense
riparian 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 terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...
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 The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...
s and tussock grasses. Historically, the honeyeaters have also occupied manna gum
riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered chann ...
. Key habitat elements include the presence of decorticating (peeling) bark, closely spaced eucalypt stems and dense undergrowth.


Behaviour

Helmeted honeyeaters are sedentary,
territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...
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.Menkhorst (2008b), p.4.


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 cobwebs, decorated with
spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...
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 Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight s ...
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.Krake & Thomas (2000). Once they
fledge Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnera ...
, the young birds disperse from their parents’ territories. Females may reside temporarily near
nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualist ...
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
invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...
s, nectar, lerps, honeydew, and
eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', '' Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...
or other
plant sap Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a se ...
(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'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size f ...
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

As of November 6, 2014 The helmeted honeyeater is listed as critically endangered on the Australian
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) 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 cult ...
, and as
threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of '' critical depe ...
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.


Threats

Because of the honeyeater's small population of fewer than 170 wild birds, and very restricted distribution, several factors, such as
drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D.  Jiang, A.  Khan, W.  Pokam Mba, D.  Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
,
disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
,
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
and
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
, have the potential to bring the bird to
extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the Endling, last individual of the species, although the Functional ext ...
. 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 miners 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.Menkhorst (2008a), p.6.


Recovery plan

Conservation management 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 is the reduced biological fitness which has the potential to result from inbreeding (the breeding of related individuals). Biological fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. ...
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.Menkhorst (2008a), p.7.


References


Notes


Cited texts

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External links


Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater

EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5709339 Lichenostomus Birds of Victoria (Australia) Endemic birds of Australia Birds described in 1867 Endangered fauna of Australia