W

ith orderly lines of cormorants taking flight while lonely terns balance on bits of floating debris, one group of conservationists is searching Jakarta Bay for Christmas Island Frigatebirds.

The birds are endemic to Australia’s 135-square-kilometer Christmas Island, only 360 kilometers south of Jakarta. The island was uninhabited by humans until the late 19th century and is home to various unique species, including the largest and rarest of the frigatebirds, named after their island home.

Now, the birds that evolved far from contact with mankind — and which dramatically declined in number after man’s arrival to their breeding grounds — is making themselves at home in Jakarta’s densely populated environs.

Frigatebirds are known for their powers of flight, with one famous case of a Christmas Island Frigatebird tagged with a satellite tracking device flying 4,000 kilometers nonstop from Christmas Island, through the Sunda Strait, across Borneo and returning home 26 days later.

BirdLife International says the birds are known for “commuting directly over Java”, but even with their otherworldly “commutes”, which are certainly feats of flight, these seabirds — who do not walk or swim but soar on 2.5-meter wingspans — are facing multiple threats to their existence.

Iwan Febrianto’s team is looking into the accidental trapping of the birds in Jakarta Bay, with Fransisca Noni Tirtaningtyas saying they have heard of fisherman who snag the birds in their nets cooking them for dinner, with reports that the birds, thankfully, do not taste very good.

Iwan said part of their project, also sponsored by the Oriental Bird Club, is to meet with fishermen in the area to gather any input they can and to foster discussion. Another plan is to start a program in schools in the Thousand Islands where children can learn about these singular birds in their midst.

In a statement at the onset of the project, Noni said, “Most people in Jakarta will be completely unaware that one of the world’s rarest seabirds lives on their doorstep. This is something that Jakarta should be proud of. We should be doing everything we can to protect them. At the moment, we are doing nothing.”

But, now, this group of conservationists is doing something, helping to contribute to an understanding of the complicated struggles and unnerving dependencies in the lives of these birds that can be used in the future to aid in protecting them.

– JP/Deanna Ramsay