Flying Free

Conservationists are fighting to save the endangered Bali Starling from disappearing from the wild forever.

By Carolyn Kenwrick

One late afternoon on Nusa Penida last October, six teams of bird watchers sat in the fading light, focused single-mindedly on a simple task: Counting birds.

The 19 bird watchers were participating in the audit of the wild population of Bali Starlings on Nusa Penida, south of the resort island across the Bali Straits.

The participants, representatives from Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, Bali Bird Park, Bali Bird Walks, Udayana University Denpasar and Green School, were well prepared for their task, Wayan Sumadi from Bali Bird Walks having instructed them in the art of bird watching during a walk around the general observation area. For the audit, they were divided into six groups, with one group positioned at each of six selected sites.

As evening fell, they sat and waited for a sighting of the rare, elusive bird. Finally, their patience paid off, when the gorgeous white plumage of the birds came into view.

They had seen what few people see: the Bali Starling in the wild.

“Nothing beats seeing 22 Bali Starlings coming to roost in the evening,” said Raja Segran, the general curator of Jurong Bird Park.

On overcrowded Bali, the bird has become a victim of dwindling habitat as well as hunting for the pet bird trade. Ironically, the current captive population of about 1,000 birds, descended from several hundred birds legally exported to the US and Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, has proven to be the backbone of captive breeding and reintroduction programs.

The audit was organized by the Begawan Foundation, set up in 1999 by British couple Bradley and Debbie Gardner to help conserve the birds. By 2005, the foundation had raised a total of 97 birds, mostly in enclosures on the Gardners’ estate at Begawan Giri. In that year, the birds were moved to newly erected enclosures on Nusa Penida where a release program was initiated.

“We imported two pairs from England. In truth, it was as if they had come ‘home’,” says Bradley Gardner. “We felt that these birds had come home on a mission – to assist in the estate’s Bali Starling Conservation Program. We gave the birds a second chance at survival.”

Custom Made

The ultimate goal of the program is to return the birds to the wild – or at least to semi-wild areas where they have a feasible chance of survival. Nusa Penida seemed an ideal site.

Bayu Wirayudha, the director of Begawan Foundation, worked with the Nusa Penida traditional council, which represents 35 villages on the island, to ensure the birds’ protection. In April 2006, the council members unanimously agreed to pass a local customary law for the protection of the birds. Under the law, anyone caught harming a bird would face both fines and ostracism by the community.

In 2006 and 2007, a total of 65 birds were released, including 12 released by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and First Lady Kristiani Herawati, when they visited Nusa Penida to celebrate the launch of a ferry service to mainland Bali.

In August 2010, the remaining captive breeding Bali Starlings were brought back to mainland Bali to their new home at Green School in Sibang, near Ubud. Once they settled into their new site, the breeding pairs commenced to make nests, with the result that four young had already hatched as of mid-December.

In for the Count

The second day of the October audit began at daybreak, with all teams in place by 6 a.m. The task now was to confirm whether a flock seen at one site was the same one that another team counted a few minutes later. Sumadi decided that the best way to determine this was to run through the undergrowth from one site to another, following the flock itself. By this method, the teams established by the end of the four counts that there were two flocks of young birds, each with about 15 juveniles.

But the count raised as many questions as it answered. For example, does it matter if there is human intervention affecting the starlings’ survival? Villagers admit that they put out papaya and bananas especially for the birds, and that they rescue young birds that had fallen out of the nest. Furthermore, the birds are often found nesting in old abandoned beehives, under the eaves of buildings, rather than finding a hole in a big old tree, as they would do naturally. They have also found a new source of food: the flies on the back of cattle, which are abundant and easy pickings.

The Bali Starlings do not seem to mind that they are living in the midst of human settlements. They are sighted in trees amid coconut plantations and cornfields, and in areas where there are pigs, chickens and cattle. Villagers go about their daily tasks, riding motorbikes through plantation tracks, chattering at the small local morning market underneath a tree where a past nest was sighted. A pair of birds sits in a field foraging for food alongside farmers readying their cattle for the day’s plowing.

“The birds have become part of life for the islanders of Nusa Penida,” said Raja. “They have a healthy respect for these magnificent birds and are partially responsible for its survival.”

A conservative estimate from the audit put the total population at 52 birds, consisting of two flocks of juveniles and a number of couples. Organizers concluded that a further audit is needed, with the aim of looking further afield to see where the flocks are flying to and from. There are reports of a pair with offspring on nearby Nusa Lembongan.

What the audit has shown, though, is that, in contrast to fears, the birds did not fall prey to humans and predators or prove unable to adjust to the environment. Rather, they have adjusted well, taken advantage of what is on offer and shown that Bali’s mascot is still found in the wild.

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