Conservationists in the New South Wales Central Tablelands hope publicly playing recordings of the mating call of a critically endangered songbird will help to ensure its survival.
The regent honeyeater could once be found across the east coast of Australia, but now there are fewer than 300 left in the wild.
Earlier this year, a study by the Australian National University found the species was predicted to be extinct within two decades.
Its population is found near the Hunter Valley and Capertee Valley, north of Lithgow, where its song call is being played at rest stops.
"It is really important that scientists and conservationists know where they are," Local Land Services senior officer Vivien Howard said.
"Learning how to identify regent honeyeaters is vital and helps with things like nest protection.
"If we can protect nests and increase the number of juvenile birds that are being born in the wild while doing habitat enhancement projects like tree planting, we should be able to secure them in the wild."
BirdLife Australia's NSW woodland bird program manager Mick Roderick said the species would struggle without support.
"With so few birds over such a huge area we really need our citizen scientists, we need the community to be on the lookout for the regent honeyeater," he said.
"Quite often you won't see a regent honeyeater before you hear it, so learning the call is really important because that can actually be the only way that you find the bird."
Finding its voice
Ms Howard says the honeyeater population has declined dramatically over the past three decades because of land clearing.
"Regent honeyeaters were quite common and occurred in very large flocks but the habitat they like most is fertile valley floors next to riparian areas that we also like to use for agriculture and farming," she said.
As a result, the bird is beginning to forget its mating call due to a lack of interaction with its species.
"Often if we encounter a lone, male bird he is actually making calls of other honeyeaters, like little wattle birds," Mr Roderick said.
"The theory is that these lone males are wandering off post-breeding and not actually finding other regent honeyeaters because there are so few birds left.
"It is symptomatic of the critically low population of regent honeyeaters."
In an effort to rectify this, Taronga Conservation Society Australia and Birdlife Australia are teaching honeyeaters their song before they are released from captivity.
"Males that were taken from the wild in the past 10 years are making the proper calls and some of the younger males are learning from those older, ex-wild birds," Mr Roderick said.
"When these birds are released into the wild they are making the right sounds to attract wild females."
