Billy Bray

Wild-born birds recruited to teach critically endangered regent honeyeaters their lost songs Researchers hope restoring the original song will improve breeding prospects for birds released into the wild

A breakdown of how these singing classes work, and how you graduate. @teamswiftparrot.bsky.social

Really really cool stuff from Dan Appleby and team! This has been a long time coming and has huge implications for not only regent honeyeater management but also conservation in general.

Now to see if tutoring can lead to improved breeding success post-release 🤞

Zoo-bred birds released to save one of Australia's rarest species Dozens of regent honeyeaters have been released in woodlands in the NSW Hunter Valley in an effort to boost the critically endangered population.

Excellent news that the annual #regenthoneyeater release started yesterday! In the midst of a significant eucalypt blossom event in the Hunter Valley and with many of these birds having received song tutoring, hopefully we will see some of them breeding soon!

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

A bit of a different setting for this one (I’m not joining the priesthood yet) but it was a great honour to talk about my project at the #CanberraBirds meeting on Wednesday night. @sramellini.bsky.social also gave an awesome presentation on his fairywren sociality study!

📸 @franhckr.bsky.social

This review explores the loss of vocal culture in wild birds, synthesizes how this loss may occur and discusses the potential to conserve avian vocal cultures in the wild and in captivity: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #PhilTransB #conservation

Conserving avian vocal culture | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Over 40% of bird species learn their vocalizations from conspecifics. Avian vocalizations therefore represent one of the most pervasive and quantifiable examples of culturally acquired behaviour that ...

A bit late to the party but I’m very happy to have been involved in this review of avian vocal culture conservation!

It’s just one of many amazing reviews in Phil. Trans. B’s new special issue on animal culture and conservation.

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Farmers, conservationists cheer after 750,000 trees planted to help save threatened native bird Since the Regent Honeyeater Project kicked off in the 1990s, tens of thousands of volunteers have helped to regenerate farmland in order to help save the critically endangered species.

Good news! Preventing the extinction of the regent honeyeater will not be possible without multiple conservation actions working together. Habitat restoration is one crucial piece of the puzzle!

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

Targeted nest predator management and zoo-bred supplementation in a Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia) breeding event | www.tandfonline.com/... | Emu | #ornithology 🪶

✋