Nine steps of a rehabilitated raptor’s flight to freedom

Building dreams: Femke den Haas and ecotourism team volunteer Vera Clapham discuss the possible use of some used wood they have acquired for the ecotourism project. The abundance of driftwood and other reusable items on East Kotok Island will be a source of material for furnishings in bungalows the women are renovating. - Photo by Maria L. Kegel

1. The blood of an endangered Brahminy Kite raptor is checked for diseases in a Jakarta lab.

2. If the blood results are favorable, the bird is placed in a cage
or kennel at the island’s rehabilitation center.

3. The raptor is weighed, dewormed and tagged with a microchip. Details of the bird’s arrival and its identifying features are recorded in a log book.

4. A plastic band is placed on the bird’s leg so observers can identify the raptor by sight and study its behavior from a distance. Checking a raptor’s feces and monitoring how much the bird eats is important.

5.  The raptor is placed in an isolation pen for observation for a week. “Raptors that are underweight may need to stay longer in isolation so they can receive enough food.

“Once they enter the socialization pen, stronger birds may take more than their share,” Mirjam Bos, a visiting veterinary nurse from the Netherlands who was volunteering for JAAN’s companion animal projects, said.

6. The bird is introduced to other raptors in a group cage. It may need to stay a while if it is not adapting well.

7. The raptor is moved to a sea pen, a netted enclosure close to the shore, to hone its hunting skills.

Weighing the odds: Staff members of JAAN team check and record the weight of one of two new Brahminy Kites entering the rehabilitation project on East Kotok Island, while co-founder Femke den Haas prepares a microchip to be inserted in the protected raptor. - Photo by Maria L. Kegel

Femke den Haas, who started the project in 2004, said, “Hunting straight from the sea is a lot harder for the birds than hunting from the fish ponds set up for them in the other pens. Once they can do that, we can release them.” Before a raptor enters the sea pen, its leg band is removed and a wing marker is carefully attached so observers can spot the bird up to 300 meters away with binoculars after its release. The pink, orange or yellow marker will fall off on its own in a month. A radio transmitter is also attached to the raptor before it enters the sea pen.

8. After the raptor proves it can hunt from the sea, it is transferred to another pen that is not in the territory of other raptors. Den Haas will spend two weeks observing the raptor every day at this critical phase.  
9. The raptor is released from the pen. Den Haas and volunteers will continue to observe the bird for up to a month if there is enough help on hand. “If there aren’t enough volunteers, we just do irregular visits and check up on them for another month,” she said, adding their job had been made easier with the assistance of locals, who had become more involved as the project became better known in the community.

— Maria L. Kegel