Our favourite Australian birds: Yellow!
e: We have a yellow winner!
Congratulations golden whistler!
Golden whistlers are the closest thing to a winner with national range so far, being found in every state and territory except the Northern Territory. Perhaps partly due to this very wide distribution, golden whistlers have a complex taxonomy, with as many as 73 subspecies recognised at points in the past; though today these are down to seven. This includes the recent readdition ('lumping') of the western whistler of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria into the taxonomy, where it had previously been split off into its own species.
All that aside, what isn't complex about them is that they're beautiful, curious little birds and have a very sweet song.
I also have to quickly mention that we have two critically endangered honeyeaters among our runners up, both with significant recovery plans and volunteer efforts to sustain them.
In third place, the helmeted honeyeater (a subspecies of the yellow-tufted honeyeater) is endemic to Victoria, its only wild population of around 200 birds is in a small locked conservation reserve east of Melbourne. You can learn more or donate to Friends of the Helmeted Honeyeater, the volunteer group managing the reserve and their recovery, here.
In fourth place, the regent honeyeater used to be present in dry forests of the east coast, but habitat destruction have seen its range severely decline, and its wild population down to as low as 250 individuals. Birdlife Australia are among the key partners in conserving this species.
---
Voting is now open for yellow!
Leave a comment or upvote your favourite birds according to the colour being voted on. The comment with the highest upvotes will be the winner, so avoid vote-splitting by checking the comments for your favourite bird first!
Birds don't have to be entirely the colour you're voting for, but should be predominantly that colour. If the colour or a variation of it is in the bird's name, then it's also eligible. Take this as a guideline rather than a rule and nominate accordingly.
The species should be native to Australia - sorry European goldfinch!
We can't leave image comments on r/AustralianBirds, but it would still be great to link to a picture with your nomination. If you've got a photo you'd be happy for me to use if that species is the winner then please include a link as a reply to the original nomination!
We'll switch to the next colour - green - tomorrow morning.
Image credits: Crimson rosella, David Ongley; Flame robin, David Irving; Golden whistler, Zebedee Muller; Eastern yellow robin, Gary Dickson; Regent bowerbird, Matt Wright; Yellow-tufted honeyeater (helmeted), Craig McQueen; Regent honeyeater, Veeraj Sharma; New Holland honeyeater, Martin Allen.