Trouble ahead for heavily smuggled Oriental Magpie-robin

Oriental Magpie-robin © James A. Eaton/Birdtour Asia

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 5th March 2021 – The Oriental Magpie-robin Copsychus saularis, a popular songbird in Southeast Asia is headed for trouble if it is not protected from rampant trapping in Malaysia and smuggling to feed international demand, warns a new report by conservation organisation TRAFFIC and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (PERHILITAN).

The Oriental Magpie-robin is common in the wild in Malaysia and other range states. Yet worryingly large numbers are being intercepted in seizures with at least 26,950 of the birds confiscated in just 44 incidents that implicated Malaysia from January 2015 to December 2020.

The research shows that a staggering 66% of these birds were smuggled in 2020 alone.

The report Smuggled for its Song: The trade in Malaysia’s Oriental Magpie-robins reveals that the majority (64%) of the seized birds were being trafficked from Malaysia to Indonesia.

“This points to Malaysian populations of the Oriental Magpie-robin being targeted to feed demand in neighbouring countries, particularly Indonesia. It also indicates an escalation of international trafficking in recent years to feed the persistent demand for the pet trade,” said PERHILITAN Director-General Dato’ Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim.

Seizures in Malaysia took place in only four states implicating these as key source or consolidation points for smuggling. Large shipments of the birds were mostly smuggled by sea to Indonesia, with such cases involving 17,314 birds.

A seizure of 1,825 Oriental Magpie-robins and one White-rumped Shama in Senggarang, Johor by General Operations Force of the Royal Malaysian Police in January 2020. © Pasukan Gerakan Am, Polis Diraja Malaysia

The authors identified greater collaboration between Malaysia and Indonesia as a priority to investigate and disrupt the trafficking chains that drive the trade and also called for improved legal protections for the species in Malaysia as it is not uniformly protected within the country. At present, the Oriental Magpie-robin is only listed as a protected species under Sabah’s Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997 and not Peninsular Malaysia’s or Sarawak’s wildlife law.

The Oriental Magpie-robin also faces demand within Malaysia. TRAFFIC’s trade assessments of online marketplaces – where most of the wildlife pet trade in the country currently takes place – found that the Oriental Magpie-robin is one of the top species recorded for sale.

“History has shown that when sought-after species are not properly regulated, wild populations can be depleted quickly. Take for instance the once-common Straw-headed Bulbul, which has now vanished from much of its range because of trade,” said Kanitha Krishnasamy, Director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.

“Establishing a strengthened regulation system could prevent this from happening to the Oriental Magpie-robin,” Krishnasamy said.

The Straw-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus only remains in Singapore and some parts of Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. It was listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN in 2018, due to trapping pressure for trade.

The Oriental Magpie-robin was trapped to near-extinction in the wild in Singapore in the 1980s and required a conservation reintroduction programme to reverse the trend.

“Listing this species as Protected across the three laws is the first step to improved monitoring and regulation of the trade through a licensing system. That way, its legal status and management is harmonised across the country, and will allow for more informed decisions to guide future efforts,” said Serene Chng, Programme Officer for TRAFFIC.

Enigmatic bird missing for 172 years rediscovered in the rainforests of Indonesian Borneo

Black-browed Babbler © Muhammad Rizky Fauzan

Banjarmasin, Indonesia—The Black-browed Babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata), widely considered by experts the “greatest enigma in Indonesian ornithology”, has been sensationally rediscovered in the rainforests of Borneo more than 172 years after it was first seen.

Mr. Muhammad Suranto and Mr. Muhammad Rizky Fauzan, both locals in Indonesia’s South Kalimantan Province, were gathering forest products in an area not far from where they live when they accidentally stumbled upon an unfamiliar bird species. They caught and released it after taking some photographs.

The two contacted local birdwatching groups, BW Galeatus and Birdpacker who then suspected the bird might be the missing Black-browed Babbler. This was subsequently confirmed after consultations with expert ornithologists from Indonesia and around the region.

“It feels surreal to know that we have found a species of bird presumed by experts to be extinct. When we found it, we didn't expect it to be that special at all – we thought it was just another bird that we simply have never seen before”, said Rizky Fauzan.

The Black-browed Babbler was described by the noted French ornithologist, Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850 based on a specimen collected some time in the 1840s by German geologist and naturalist, Carl A.L.M. Schwaner during his expeditions to the East Indies.

Since then, no other specimen or sightings have been reported and the origin of the type specimen has been shrouded in mystery. Even the island where it was taken was unclear: widely assumed to be Java, it was only in 1895 that Swiss ornithologist Johann Büttikofer pointed out that Schwaner was in Borneo at the time of his discovery.

“The sensational finding confirms that the Black-browed Babbler comes from south-eastern Borneo, ending the century-long confusion about its origins,” said Mr. Panji Gusti Akbar of Indonesian bird conservation group, Birdpacker, lead author of the paper giving details of the rediscovery published today by the Oriental Bird Club, a UK-based bird conservation charity in their journal, BirdingASIA.

“We now also know what the Black-browed Babbler really looks like—the photographed bird showed several differences from the only known specimen, specifically the colour of the iris, bill and legs. These three parts of a bird’s body are known to lose their tint and are often artificially coloured during the taxidermy process.”

“The discovery also confirms that this species remains extant despite the massive deforestation and habitat conversion in this little-known part of Borneo. There is therefore a very high possibility of it being severely threatened by habitat loss.”

Mr. Teguh Willy Nugroho, a co-author of the BirdingASIA paper, a member of staff at the Sebangau National Park in Kalimantan, and a founding member of BW Galeatus, observed that the remarkable discovery demonstrated the importance of networks of local people, birdwatchers and professional scientists in gathering information on Indonesia’s biodiversity, especially some of the country’s least known species. This can be important in remote areas of the country that are not easily accessible to scientists.

“I think it is amazing that we managed to document one of the most remarkable zoological discoveries in Indonesia, if not Asia (largely through online communication) in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has hampered us from visiting the site”, Teguh noted.

The dramatic rediscovery of the Black-browed Babbler demonstrates how poorly known Indonesia’s sprawling avifauna is, the largest in Asia—with more than 1,700 species found across the archipelago’s many little-surveyed islands.

“It’s sobering to think that when the Black-browed Babbler was last seen, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species hadn’t even been published and the now extinct Passenger Pigeon was still among the world’s commonest birds,” said Mr Ding Li Yong, an Asia-based conservationist with the world’s leading bird conservation charity, BirdLife International, and a co-author of the paper.

“Who knows what other riches lie deep within Borneo’s fabled rainforests, especially in the Indonesian part of the island, and the paramount need to protect them for future generations.”

A further publication detailing the bird’s ecology is currently being prepared by the authors, while plans are ongoing to revisit the site where the species was discovered when conditions permit.

Details of the rediscovery are published today by the Oriental Bird Club, a UK-based bird conservation charity, in their members’ journal, BirdingASIA—click on the title below to download the paper.

Akbar, P.G., Nugroho, T.W., Suranto, M., Fauzan, M.R., Ferdiansyah, D., Trisiyanto, J.S. and Yong, D.L. (2020). Missing for 170 years—the rediscovery of Black-browed Babbler Malacocincla perspicillata on Borneo. BirdingASIA 34: 13–14.

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Media contacts

For more information, please contact

Panji Gusti Akbar

Birdpacker

Email: panji.gusti@gmail.com

Teguh Willy Nugruho

Sebangau National Park Headquarters, BW Galeatus

Email: teguhwillynugroho@gmail.com

Doddy Ferdiansyah 

BW Galeatus

Email: ferdiansyah.doddy@yahoo.co.id

Ding Li Yong

BirdLife International (Asia)

Email: dingli.yong@birdlife.org

OBC supports breeding centre for Critically Endangered Indonesian species

Captive breeding is a lifeline for the Critically Endangered Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush Garrulax rufifrons
© Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center.

The Oriental Bird Club (OBC) is providing co-funding alongside ASAP (Asian Species Action Partnership) to keep the Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center going during the uncertain economic times.

This special Wildlife Center, located in West Java, Indonesia, has the goal of breeding endemic Indonesian species that are threatened with extinction with the long-term aim of re-establishing viable wild populations. They include Critically Endangered species like the Black-winged Myna Acridotheres melanopterus, Javan Green Magpie Cissa thalassina and Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush Garrulax rufifrons. With the combined threat of habitat destruction and poaching for the caged bird trade, all three species teeter on the brink of extinction in the wild.

Conservation breeding programmes are one of the final tools in the conservation toolbox for the survival of species. For now, the Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center is managing captive populations to maximise their genetic diversity, with the future aim of reintroducing birds into a safe habitat.

The funding from OBC will enable the team at Cikananga to provide a high-quality diet to the birds, which should encourage them to breed. The funding will also support a locally employed member of staff who has a wealth of avicultural experience with these species.

The team at Cikananga © Cikananga Conservation Breeding Center.

The funding from OBC will enable the team at Cikananga to provide a high-quality diet to the birds, which should encourage them to breed. The funding will also support a locally employed member of staff who has a wealth of avicultural experience with these species.

OBC-supported project goes cuckoo

Onon, photographed in 2019 just before release after being fitted with a satellite tag.

The remarkable travels of Onon, a satellite-tagged Common Cuckoo featured heavily in the media this week, with an article in the UK's Guardian and also featured on BBC radio and television.

Onon was one of five birds tagged in June 2019, four of them Common Cuckoos and one Oriental Cuckoo. The bird successfully completed a round trip of 26,000 km from its breeding site in Mongolia, all the way to Zambia in southern Africa.

The Mongolian Cuckoo Project

During its epic migration, the bird took in 27 border crossings and 16 countries and on the return leg flew right across the ocean from the Horn of Africa to northwest India.

The Mongolia Cuckoo Project is a joint initiative by the Wildlife Science and Conservation Center (WSCC) of Mongolia and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), facilitated by Birding Beijing and generously supported by the Oriental Bird Club and Mr Dick Newell.

Join the Oriental Bird Club and help support projects like this and conservation work across the Oriental region. Remember the Club is entirely run by volunteers so every penny we raise goes to where it counts most.

Flappy goes cuckoo and leads a merry dance

There was exciting news earlier this week when Flappy – or Flappy McFlapperson to give her full name: the female Cuckoo sponsored by the Oriental Bird Club through the Beijing Cuckoo Project—apparently began her southward migration. Speculation was rife as to whether she would head towards Africa or South Asia. However, as the maps below demonstrate, she is not about to give her secret away just yet.

By 15th July, Flappy was back in China, having been tracked to the edge of the Gobi Desert, and it appeared as if she was retracing her route from her tagging location in Beijing.

Things looked to be quite normal, but then her latest position revealed she had headed north once more to a location in Mongolia to the southeast of where she had started, thus completing three sides of a parallelogram!

Although the behaviour might appear extraordinary, such return movements of southbound migrants are not unknown, according to the BTO’s Dr Chris Hewson, who manages the project.

According to Hewson, migrant birds are sometimes even known to return to where they began their autumn migration.

In this instance, it is possible that on encountering harsh conditions on the edge of the Gobi Desert, Flappy turned back north to where she knew there was favourable habitat and a food source.

The next few days are keenly awaited to see where Flappy will make her next move.

Meanwhile, the other four cuckoos fitted with transmitters through the Beijing Cuckoo Project are all still on their breeding grounds.

All five of the birds were trapped in the Beijing area where local schoolchildren chose names for them and encouraged to follow their movements online as they move first to their breeding grounds then in the autumn to their as yet unknown wintering grounds.

The Beijing Cuckoo Project aims to engage Chinese audiences about the wonders of bird migration with a view to promoting conservation and helping to strengthen the links between Chinese and international bird conservation organisations.

The main scientific goal will be to discover the presently unknown migration route and winter quarters for Common Cuckoos breeding in East Asia.

The Beijing Cuckoo Project is a collaboration between the Beijing Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (BWRRC), China Birdwatching Society (CBS), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and Birding Beijing.

Alongside OBC, other supporters of the project are the Zoological Society of London and the British Birds Charitable Foundation.

Barn owl photographs sought

Moluccan Masked Owl Tyto sororcula cayelii, Buru, Maluku, Indonesia © James Eaton/Birdtour Asia

Alexandre Roulin, Professor of Biology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland is currently writing a review of worldwide studies of barn owls, family Tytonidae, summarizing more than 3,600 published papers on the subject.

To illustrate his forthcoming book, Alexandre is seeking photographs of all Tytonidae species and subspecies, taken across the global distribution of this fascinating family.

All photographers providing images will be fully credited in the publication. Any submissions should include full details of where and when the photographs were taken, and if known (sub)specific identification.

If you would like to contribute to this project, please contact Alexandre at Alexandre.Roulin@unil.ch