Feathered Friends
Bird On A Wire Wines partners with BirdLife Australia
Birds of a feather flock together. This old English proverb simply means people of similar type, interest or taste are inclined to come together.
Bird On A Wire Wines is thus proud and excited to come together with BirdLife Australia to provide a brighter future for Australia’s birds.
We both love and adore our native birds and I am thrilled, with your support, to be a part of the important work they do.
BirdLife Australia works tirelessly to protect and preserve Australia’s native birds and their habitats, with a particular focus on endangered and critically endangered species.
We will launch our partnership with this year’s BirdLife Australia’s Christmas Appeal.
BirdLife Australia’s 2021 Christmas Appeal is focused on three of Australia’s most charming yet most threatened woodland birds – the Regent Honeyeater, South-eastern Brown Treecreeper and the Painted Honeyeater – all of which are specially adapted to feed in, or around, native mistletoe plants.
All three of these birds depend on habitats which are fast disappearing, or are significantly impacted by climate change.
Native mistletoes are a key plant species required by these woodland birds to survive, thus BirdLife Australia are also bringing a spotlight to the importance of mistletoe species to our Australian birds.
For this year’s Christmas Appeal, you can purchase a BirdLife wine pack to support each bird in the appeal and help plant more mistletoe seeds in vital locations.
Five percent from each wine pack sold will go directly to BirdLife Australia to help save these birds and their habitat.
At a time when climate change and changing conditions across our planet are generating deep concern, this is one way you can help support important conservation efforts to support our native birds and their ecosystems.
Enjoying a wine will feel even better this Christmas thanks to the good work your wine purchase will contribute to in 2022.
Your generous support will help to:
1. Seed trees with mistletoe, so birds like Regent and Painted Honeyeaters have nectar and fruits to feast on, and birds like South-eastern Brown Treecreepers have insect-rich areas to forage in.
2. Lessen the impacts of climate change on woodland birds, by revegetating their homes carefully to improve habitat resilience, so they have safe refuges during drought and bushfires.
3. Support captive breeding and release programs – to boost the wild population of Regent Honeyeaters and help the species stabilise.
Below is a little more information about the Regent Honeyeater, Painted Honeyeater and the South-eastern Brown Treecreeper, and how much they need your help this Christmas.
Regent Honeyeater
The Regent Honeyeater is one of Australia’s most handsome honeyeaters and it is critically endangered. There are less than 350 left in the wild.
It is named for its striking yellow-and-black plumage. Regent Honeyeaters were once regular visitors as far north as Rockhampton, west to the Riverina region of New South Wales, and south to the suburbs of Melbourne, but no more.
Widespread clearance of their woodland habitat has seen their numbers decline and their range across the country shrink dramatically.
BirdLife collaborated with Taronga Zoo, Mindaribba LALC, and the NSW DPIE to breed 58 Regent Honeyeaters, which were recently released in the Lower Hunter Valley–the largest scale captive-bred release of these birds ever. Your support makes these direct interventions to prevent extinctions possible. You can see photos and videos of the release here. (BirdLife Australia)
Buy Online: Regent Honeyeater Wine Pack
South-eastern Brown Treecreeper
The South-eastern Brown Treecreeper is vulnerable in NSW and searches the especially insect-rich forest floor beneath native mistletoe to find insects to feed on.
Though it does forage on the ground, this treecreeper actually gets its name from its characteristic spiralling crawl up and down tree trunks to discover food. It is a cute little bird but populations are declining with the clearing of woodland habitat. It is not a migratory bird. The South-eastern Brown Treecreeper finds its home and remains there, which is why the habitats it loves to live and feed in are so important for its survival. (BirdLife Australia)
Buy Online: South-eastern Brown Treecreeper Wine Pack
Painted Honeyeater
The Painted Honeyeater is found in dry open forests and woodlands, and is strongly associated with mistletoe. It is vulnerable in NSW and Victoria.
The Painted Honeyeater specialises in foraging on the fruits of the parasitic mistletoes that grow in trees. These mistletoe fruits hang in clusters, formed after pollination of them quite exquisite, delicate and brightly coloured flowers which hang in profusion among the pendulous mistletoe foliage. Painted Honeyeaters undertake long-distance seasonal movements, and time their appearance in key regions to coincide with the times when different species of mistletoes are fruiting.
The decline in native mistletoes is a concern for the future survival of the Painted Honeyeater. (BirdLife Australia)
Buy Online: Painted Honeyeater Wine Pack
