Why I'm voting No 1 regent honeyeater in the Australian bird of the year poll | Andrew Stafford

They're an eye-popping treat, but drought and the bulldozer have thinned their numbers. Now a coal plant and dam wall threaten their survival
" Cast your vote in bird of the year 2019 here

A few months ago, the bird-watching community in south-east Queensland went into a twitching frenzy. Two regent honeyeaters, a critically endangered species, had been discovered feeding on ironbark blossoms in the suburban heart of Springfield Lakes, on Brisbane's south-western outskirts, near the satellite city of Ipswich.

The honeyeaters stayed for several weeks, spending the afternoons in a single, heavily flowering tree between a shopping village and childcare centre. When the blossom on that tree and the surrounding ironbarks began to dry up, they began feasting on lerps - tiny, sugary-tasting, sap-sucking insects which clung to the leaves of a small fig tree directly outside a coffee shop.