The Regent Honeyeater is a critically endangered native Australian songbird with fewer than 300 adult birds remaining in the wild. The breed for release program aims to bolster the wild population with zoo-bred birds until the wild population becomes self-sustaining. Since its inception in 1995, when the first nine wild birds were collected, there has been over 400 birds released to the wild. Evidenced based research has provided information on the impacts of zoo-life experience on the post-release survivorship and breeding success in Regent Honeyeaters. For example, time spent in large, complex, multispecies aviaries has been shown to be important for post-release survival. These findings have enabled the optimisation of the management strategies for the breeding population, the design of facilities, as well as the selection of release cohorts. There has also been extensive research into tutoring of Regent Honeyeaters to sing the wild-type song. This is important as song is intrinsically linked to courtship and breeding and there is the expectation that birds that sing the same song as their wild counterparts, will have improved post-release success. Moreover, recent Population Viability Analysis modelling has emphasized the need for an increase in the number of zoo-bred birds as a key strategy to avoid extinction within the next 20 years. Therefore, the ability to have an iterative process to implement changes as new information becomes available, has been critical to the management strategy of the breed for release program for this species.