Helmeted Honeyeater cards

There are many aspects of bird photography that I relish and one of my favourites is being able to help highlight conservation issues. A few weeks ago I was contacted by Margot, a friend of the Helmeted Honeyeaters, and asked if I’d be willing to have any of my heho images printed onto cards.

Most of my Helmeted Honeyeater images are of leg bands which we need to identify to record on the data sheet; sometimes the birds’ heads are chopped off and sometimes the image would have been awesome if only I’d focussed on the eye instead of the band – missed images are always awesome.

Helmeted Honeyeaters – fledglings

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Fledglings don’t often sit in the open but this pair were quite bold and waited patiently for the parent birds to feed them. The image above was taken with a long lens and has been cropped. The fledgling on the right was quieter and sleepier than its sibling but it was just as insistent to be fed when the food arrived.

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Cards available from Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeaters

I met up with Margot, who organised the printing, and who gave me these sample cards. The printing quality is excellent; I was very pleasantly impressed. Margot has added some general information to the back of each card, as shown below.

Strangely enough I find it easier to photograph things that fly or run away. I should have removed the plastic protective covers from the cards to avoid the reflections – instead I decided to include the original images with this post.

Cards available from Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeaters

The cards sell on the Helmeted Honeyeater page for $2 each or $6 for 10 – which seems  ridiculously cheap considering the cost of cards in the supermarket.

Helmeted Honeyeater – fledgling

Once a fortnight a lovely friend and I help with the supplementary feeding of the critically endangered honeyeaters at the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve, east of Melbourne. Door to door it’s a full day commitment, though some other feeds are shorter. We feed in the heat, in the cold (see Minus two degrees), in the wind and the rain. Some days we record numerous birds and other days we hardly catch a glimpse of them. Over the past few years we’ve seen all kinds of everyday wonders including, various bird species, echidnas (which the spell-checker thinks should be enchiladas), lizards, wombats, wallabies, antechinus, butterflies and a particularly handsome red-bellied black snake. Slightly less wonderful are the mosquitoes and leeches.

Helmeted Honeyeater

The Helmeted Honeyeater became Victoria’s avian emblem in 1971. It is endemic to Victoria and is a sub-species of the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater.

Helmeted Honeyeater

Helmeted Honeyeaters prefer swampy, riparian forests with an abundance of eucalypt, tea-tree, paperbark, prickly-currant bush, gahnia and scrambling coral fern. These conditions make photography difficult, even on days when the light is reasonable the shadows from the upper and mid-storeys often fall across the birds. If anyone would like images of hehos it would be a lot easier to visit Healesville Sanctuary where there is a captive breeding program. From time to time new volunteers are needed at Yellingbo, so if you live in the general area and any of this post has piqued your interest contact me or the Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater.

Happy birding, Kim