On a clear evening in Yogyakarta, dozens of birdwatchers accompanied ornithologist Ignatius Pramana Yuda from the Biology Faculty at Yogyakarta’s Atma Jaya University on his hunt for barn swallows.

After trying for almost an hour, he finally caught two of the birds in his net. Pramana then measured their length, recorded their weight and fastened small bands on their legs.

“The bands will help us track the birds’ migration patterns,” he said. If birdwatchers in other regions catch the same swallows, they will be able to tell that the birds passed through Yogyakarta.

During the past few months, as the sun sets and darkness descends on Yogyakarta, thousands of barn swallows start to fly toward the area around Beringharjo Market. Their loud chirping attracts the attention of people walking by.

The swallows scramble for resting places on trees, electricity cables and tall buildings, turning the area around the market into a sort of “bird hotel.” If they are disturbed, the birds look for another place to perch while leaving behind bird droppings. When morning dawns, the birds fly off to find food, returning again as darkness falls.

The swallows are “tourists” who will remain in Yogyakarta through the end of the month. In early February, they will start to “check out” in waves and return to their original habitat in Siberia, northern Russia.

In A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java and Bali, John MacKinnon wrote that barn swallows are migratory birds from the Northern Hemisphere. As winter covers their home region, they fly thousands of kilometers south toward Papua and Australia to look for food.

Imam Taufiqurahman, the director of the Kutilang Indonesia Foundation for Bird Conservation, said some of the swallows also made their way to Yogyakarta and other major Indonesian cities. They will fly back north toward the end of winter, in January or February.

“These birds eat insects that are not available in their places of origin during winter,” he said.

The swallows fly as far as farmland near the southern beaches, about 25 kilometers south of their “hotel” at Beringharjo Market.

Many swallows also perch on electricity cables and trees along Jl. Mayor Suryotomo, east of the market. Motorcycle drivers that stop at the traffic light at the end the road frequently become “victims” of the birds’ droppings.

The swallows have also caused other disturbances. In November, Adisucipto International Airport had to be closed for a few hours while airport employees shooed away flocks of birds that were obstructing the runways.

Barn swallows are not the only species of birds that flock to Yogyakarta. Suyatno, a security guard at a bank near Beringharjo Market, said he had noticed a different type of bird in the area.

“They look like starlings, but it’s hard to see because they fly so fast,” he said.

Imam confirmed Suyatno’s observation, saying two large migratory bird colonies had arrived in Yogyakarta. Besides the barn swallows, Daurian starlings had also descended upon the city. In 2011, they numbered 2,300.

“I also remember seeing the yellow-rumped flycatcher, the dark-sided flycatcher and the common kingfisher, but they are very rare and I’ve only seen one of each,” he said.

Migratory birds can also be an alternative tourist attraction in the region, which is home to a large number of bird watchers who are mostly university students. Even without the feathered visitors, Yogyakarta is already a very bird-rich area as it is home to 340 of the 515 bird species on the island of Java, according to the Kutilang Indonesia Foundation. (kmt)

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