Although it is full of concrete buildings and asphalt roads, Jakarta still has many species of birds including rare ones.
If you are lucky, you can find Kuntul (Eggreta sp), Pecuk Ular Asia (Anhinga melanogaster) and Punai Gading (Treron vernans) in the city.
The information was revealed by Ady Cristanto from The International Fauna and Flora (FFI) and Frank Momberg from The Jakarta Green Monster in their book The Jakarta Nature.
"Luckily, we still have 121 kinds of birds in Jakarta. Even though the number is smaller than in the past," Ady told a discussion at the book's launch Wednesday.
In 1946, Jakarta still had more than 250 species of birds, Adi said. The number became smaller and smaller after the government built many buildings, houses and roads, he added.
Ady found the above species of birds in 10 different areas around the city: Muara Angke reserve, Angke Park, Pesanggrahan, Ciliwung River, Babakan Lake, University of Indonesia, the National Monument park, Surapati park, Senayan, Srengseng city forest, Rambut and Pramuka islands.
From the 121 species of the birds, about 31 of them are protected by the government. Two of them are on the brink of extinction: the Cikalang Chrismas (Regata andewsi) and Trulek Jawa (Vanerus macroptelus)
"This is a surprising discovery because we do not have any forests, unpolluted rivers and swamps for the animal's habitats," said Adi, who also works at the Nasional University laboratory.
He conducted the research with other researchers from several universities in Jakarta in 2006.
Besides the birds, the researchers also discovered a number of other animal species found at Jakarta lakes, paddy field, seashores and rivers.
"Jakarta still has many kinds of butterflies, insects, snakes, crocodiles, lizards and even otters," Ady said.
Momberg said the city government needed to add more green areas in order to protect the birds and other animals.
"Only 6 percent of Jakarta is open, green zone. We have to expand it until the ideal 30 percent," Momberg said.
In the past, people would travel from Muara Angke, North Jakarta, to Cengkareng, West Jakarta, to see the bashful Bubut Jawa (Centropus nigrorufus), he said, but today it is quite difficult to find the bird.
"We need to protect the birds that are still left, from extinction."
Ning Purnomo Hadi, an environmentalist, said human behavior and attitudes had caused many environmental problems.
For example, people hunt hawks and snakes for restaurants serving "healthy" menus based on the animal's parts. Because of this, the rat population is extremely high, she said.
"The rats should be eaten by predator animals. Now the hawks and the snakes are rare, and the rats are everywhere."
She also complained about swamps, rivers and other wetlands, which have disappeared with the construction of buildings.
"This have caused many kinds of dangerous mosquitoes to live together with people because they have lost their own habitats."
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