1. THE ENDANGERED
HELMETED
HONEYEATER
(Lichenostomus melanops cassidix)
By Alannah Gow

2. Structural characteristics
The Helmeted Honeyeater is
• A fully very alike to the average
grown
Honeyeater (m. gippslandicus)
helmeted
honeyeater’s but the Helmeted Honeyeater
length is has a yellow mo-hawk like
about 20 cm crown that is more noticeable
(tale to tip) and distinctive ear tuffs.
and weighs
around 32 g.
They range in
colour from black
to olive-brown to
yellow and have a
yellow crest.

3. Functional characteristics
• One of the functional characteristics of the Helmeted Honey
Eater is that they produce Hydrochloric acid in their stomachs
which helps to break down anything they eat eg. seeds and
insects.
• They also have a functional feature that helps them to save
water. It is that they don’t have one tube for ‘liquids’ and one
for ‘solids’ it is all rolled into one, they have one tube that
does both and that helps to keep the fluids inside longer. They
get rid of their wastes products in the form of uric acid and
the uric acid is the white bit in the poo.

4. Behavioural characteristics
• Their breeding season is from early August through to
February.
• Two eggs are usually laid about two to three times a year.
• The female incubates the eggs for about 14 days, then both
parents care for the young
• The baby Helmeted Honeyeaters become independent forty
days after hatching out of their eggs.

5. Diet
• The diet of the Helmeted honeyeater consists of about 25% nectar
but most of it is made up of bark, twigs, tree sap and Eucalypts
leaves. Some of the nectar comes from eucalypt flowers (when
they are available). Berries are also gathered from bushes such as
the Prickly Currant bush.
• Insects mealworms, larval stage of beetles and spiders are also an
essential part of the Helmeted Honeyeaters diet, because they
contain lots of protein.

6. Habitat
• The Helmeted honey eater only exists in Victoria east of
Melbourne.
• Helmeted Honeyeaters habitat is narrow bands of swamp or
creek vegetation with Eucalypt forests within the Yellingbo
Nature Conservation Reserve.

7. Threats
• The Helmeted Honeyeater was named an Endangered species
under the National Environment protection and Biodiversity
Protection act in 1999. They where also listed as a threatened
species under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee act in 1988 and in
2003 they where classified as Critically Endangered under the
Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria.
• Their threats are; habitat destruction from humans and bush fires,
weed invasions, Predation of eggs, feral cats, foxes, but there
biggest and most common threat is the Bell miner.

8. Bibliography
• http://www.helmetedhoneyeater.org.au/helmeted_hone
yeater.htm
• http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/103168/008_Helmeted
_Honeyeater_1992.pdf
• http://www.cfzaustralia.com/2011/05/rare-helmeted-honeyeater-released-
at.html
• http://www.russellsastronomy.com/gallery/Nature/Birds/Healesville%20Sanct
uary/helmeted%20honeyeater.htm
• http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recove
ry/helmeted-h-eater/pubs/lichenostomus-melanops-cassidix.pdf
• http://www.actwild.org.au/animals/honeyeater
• http://www.australian-information-stories.com/helmeted-honeyeater.html
• http://www.backyardnature.net/birdpee.htm
• http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/103396/Helmeted_ho
neyeater.pdf
• http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-
bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=26011