Rare regent honeyeaters unexpectedly spotted on NSW Mid North Coast
The group had just got to Jolly Nose Mountain Bike Park in the Queens Lake Nature Reserve recently, when an eagle-eyed twitcher spotted a critically endangered regent honeyeater.
According to BirdLife Australia, there have only been five reports of the bird in the Port Macquarie area in the past decade.
Hastings Birdwatchers conservation officer Peter West was one of the few people among the group of about 20 who had seen the species before.
"We got out of the car and the first thing someone said was, 'There's a regent honeyeater,'" Mr West said.
"To be honest I didn't believe they were telling me the truth, but it was true.
"The lady who organised the morning had a plan, which went out the window, and I don't think we got very far from the car park at all."
Mr West said they saw two regent honeyeaters in the reserve south of Port Macquarie, feeding with other types of honeyeaters in the trees.
"They are beautiful birds and also exceptionally rare — there's about 300 left in the wild," he said.
BirdLife Australia regent honeyeater recovery coordinator Mick Roderick said it was an important sighting because tracking regent honeyeaters in the wild outside breeding season was difficult.
According to BirdLife, the regent honeyeater was once found from Rockhampton to Adelaide, but is now confined to fragmented areas in Victoria and New South Wales.
"Regent honeyeaters are extremely rare anywhere, but particularly in this part of the Mid North Coast," Mr Roderick said.
"We are averaging less than one bird a year being reported from the Mid North Coast … so having two birds seen is really exciting."
A long-term regent honeyeater captive breeding and release program is underway in Australia, but the birds spotted were born in the wild.
"They [the birdwatchers] couldn't say if it was a pair, but the exciting thing is both birds were not banded, which means they are wild birds," Mr Roderick said.
"It gives us some hope there are more birds out there than we realise.
"We are talking about a very rare bird that covers a pretty large range … and we can go many months without knowing where there's a single individual," Mr Roderick said.
"There was a single regent honeyeater sighted at Manly Dam in Sydney … a few days before these two birds were sighted.
"Before that it had been two months before we'd seen any regent honeyeaters … overall, in 2025 we are up to about nine birds seen across their entire range."
Mr West said boosting regent honeyeater habitat was important.
"It's important we protect areas for these birds, they are nomads, they go around chasing the flowering trees and the nectar they provide," he said.
Mr Roderick said regent honeyeater habitat was in prime condition leading up to the species' breeding season this spring.
A mass eucalypt budding has occurred after wet weather and flooding in parts of NSW earlier this year, which will lead to blossoms and plenty of food to support the nectar-feeding bird.
"Spring is just around the corner, and we are really hoping regents are going to arrive back at their breeding sites in the coming weeks," Mr Roderick said.
"We are really hoping the regents take advantage of the good conditions and get some chicks out of nests.
"I do think this is a very important year for regent honeyeaters."
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