Flappy flies home

Flappy: close up taken when the bird was fitted with a satellite tag

On 3rd June 2017, Flappy - the Oriental Bird Club sponsored Common Cuckoo - completed the round trip back from Mozambique, where she wintered, to her summer home in Olon Balj Basin National Park in northern Mongolia. Remarkably, the latest satellite signals reveal she is within 2-3 km of where she spent summer 2016. Flappy is one of several cuckoos satellite tagged as part of the Beijing Cuckoo Project in May 2016 in Beijing, China.

Only two of the original five tagged cuckoos - Flappy and another bird, Meng - still have active transmissions - the tags either having failed or the birds carrying them perished. Both Flappy and Meng wintered in southern Africa having moved from their summering areas in Mongolia and China respectively. Flappy is a female of the nominate subspecies, while Meng is a male of the slightly smaller race bakeri.

Full details of the remarkable travels of these birds - which took in East Asia, parts of South-east Asia and South Asia, then across the Arabian Sea and along the coast of the Arabian peninsular and into the Horn of Africa, down through East Africa to southern Africa - can be found on the The Beijing Cuckoo Project website.

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 was to discover the unknown migration route and winter quarters for Common Cuckoos breeding in East Asia. In 2017, there are plans to tag further birds to learn more about the remarkable migrations.

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.

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

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BirdingASIA 26 distributed

The December 2016 issue of BirdingASIA should have reached all members by now. As ever, the issue is packed full of information from the Oriental region, including an article on Breeding records of the Sunda Frogmouth Batrachostomus cornutus, which features on the cover.

Non-members can find out just what they're missing here, and they'd be more than welcome to join the Club online here.

Forktail 30 papers available

In line with OBC policy, papers from back issues of the Club's journal, Forktail, are made available for free download after three years. PDFs from the 2014 issue (Forktail 30) are now available.

Helmeted Hornbill records sought

Bee Choo Strange of the Hornbill Research Foundation is on an urgent mission to collate all records of Helmeted Hornbills Rhinoplax vigil within the species's geographic range in preparation for a report to delegates attending the Helmeted Hornbill Conservation Strategy and Action Plan workshop in Sarawak, Malaysia, in May 2017.

The Helmeted Hornbill was uplisted in the IUCN Red List from from Near Threatened to Critically Endangered in 2015 owing to severe hunting pressure for its casque and habitat loss. Hunting pressure is expected to increase across the species's range and urgent conservation action is required.

The Indonesian government recently called upon the international community to help  prevent illegal trade in the species - in particular bill casques - during last year's meeting of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

The forthcoming Sarawak workshop will include NGO representatives from range countries and aims to develop a conservation Action Plan for the Helmeted Hornbill.

Phase I (March - May 2017) involves collating Helmeted Hornbill records from the literature, databases, museums and most importantly, recent and near-recent records from birdwatchers.

If you have records of Helmeted Hornbills - particularly recent sightings - please enter your data by visiting the following location and following the instructions there.

Please note any information provided will be used for research purposes only and will not be disclosed publicly.

Helmeted Hornbill Rhinoplax vigil © Muhammad Alzahri

Three tagged cuckoos reach Africa

Routes from Asia to Africa followed by Flappy (red), Skybomb (gold) and Meng (blue).

Flappy, the satellite-tagged Common Cuckoo sponsored by the Oriental Bird Club is currently in southern Mozambique, having crossed around 20 international borders on her migration south.

Flappy's journey south, and that of two other satellite-tagged cuckoos, Meng and Skybomb, is shown in the map above.

All three have moved from their breeding grounds in Asia to south-east Africa. Flappy is currently the furthest south, close to the Zimbabwe border in Mozambique, while Skybomb was last reported a few weeks ago just north of Flappy, also in Mozambique. The lack of a recent signal from Skybomb could be because of tag failure, if the bird is inhabiting dense forest where a signal is not possible, or because the bird has perished. Researchers will be keenly awaiting further signals. Meanwhile, further to the north is Meng, the only male of the trio and a different subspecies (bakeri) to the two tagged female canorus. This individual migrated somewhat later than the other two birds and is some way behind in southern Tanzania.

Regular and social media, particularly in China, have carried numerous articles about the travels of the birds, reaching potentially hundreds of thousands if not millions of readers, and all helping raise awareness of the remarkable migrations undertaken by some Asian species.

Birding Beijing reports that “Cuihu Urban Wetland Park in Beijing, the location where Flappy was tagged, is planning to erect an information board about cuckoos for the general public. It will include what we know about the life-cycle and migration and, all being well, will include a map showing the migration route of Flappy.”

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 was to discover the 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.

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(小）中国观鸟会logo

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

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2016 Autumn Meeting

The OBC Autumn Meeting, incorporating the 32nd AGM, will be held in the Wilkinson Room, St John the Evangelist, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN on Saturday 29th October 2016. The meeting starts at 11:00 and all are welcome - please bring your friends. Snacks, cakes and hot and cold drinks will be available all day.

Sales by WildSounds Prize draw in aid of the OBC Conservation Fund The AGM, at which only OBC members may vote, will be held at 12:10

Parking in side streets around the venue is very limited and we recommend that you travel by rail where possible or use the 'Park and Ride' service (www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/info/20149/park_and_ride). Walking time from Cambridge Station forecourt is about 15-20 minutes. Walk up Station Road to the junction with Hills Road and turn left. The venue is on the left hand side of Hills Road, about 400m after it crosses the railway, directly opposite Homerton College. There is a frequent bus service from Drummer Street bus station via the railway station forecourt, and along Hills Road. For a map, type the postcode CB2 8RN into ww.streetmap.co.uk.

Please find here the Minutes of the 2015 AGM, held in September 2015 and the OBC Accounts for 2015, both in PDF format.

Programme 10:30   Doors open – hot drinks & cakes available 11:00   Opening remarks by the Chairman 11:15    The Bengal Florican in India and Nepal – new insights from satellite telemetry – Paul Donald, Principal Conservation Scientist, RSPB 12:10   Annual General Meeting 12:40   Lunch break  –  refreshments and sales 13:40   How many bird species ARE there in Asia? – Dr Nigel Collar, Birdlife International 14:30  Birding in China 1984—2016 – Dr Per Alstrom , Swedish University of Agricultural  Sciences 15:20   Break for refreshments & sales 15:50   Remote Sulawesi –  a search for hidden avian gems – Mike Edgecombe 16:30   The Beijing Cuckoo Project: tracking migrations to engage, discover and inspire – Dr. Chris Hewson,  BTO Senior Research Ecologist, International Research Team 17.15   Prize draw and closing remarks by the Chairman 17:30   Meeting closes

Flappy currently in northern India

Flappy, the satellite-tagged Common Cuckoo sponsored by the Oriental Bird Club has been making astonishing progress on her autumn migration and is currently in northern India, having crossed several international borders on her migration south.

Since the last update here on 15th July she crossed the Mongolian desert, arriving in Hebei Province, southwest of Beijing, on 1st August, where she stayed for a few weeks. Next stop ruled out Southeast Asia as a wintering destination, as she travelled an incredible 2,400 km southwest into Myanmar, arriving there on 1st September.

Not for long, however, and speculations that she may stay in Myanmar were soon overturned, as only two days later her transmitter was picked up by satellites showing her to be in India, just north of the border with Bangladesh, in the state of Meghalaya. Pushing on in a west/northwesterly direction for 800 km, by 5th September Flappy had passed through the northernmost part of Bangladesh and arrived 120 km southwest of Kathmandu on the India/Nepal border.

Birding Beijing received an email from an excited follower at the Wildlife Institute of India, who noted that Flappy's route is similar to that taken by Amur Falcons, and speculating she may fly across India and migrate to Southern Africa taken an oceanic crossing like the Amurs.

Flappy has since carried on travelling northwest into Nepal and skirted the foothills of the Himalayas.

On the latest update she appeared to have changed tack from the consistent bearing of 290 degrees she had followed for the 1,700 km since Myanmar, and on 12th September was 200 km east of Delhi in Uttar Pradesh.

Birding Beijing also reports that "Cuihu Urban Wetland Park in Beijing, the location where Flappy was tagged, is planning to erect an information board about cuckoos for the general public.  It will include what we know about the life-cycle and migration and, all being well, will include a map showing the migration route of Flappy."

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.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering site under threat

Spoon-billed Sandpiper © Richard Thomas/TRAFFIC

Khok Kham, one of only two regular wintering sites in Thailand for the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and other wader species of the East Asian-Australasian flyway is under threat from a solar farm development.

A number of Thai organizations and individuals are campaigning against the development. The Oriental Bird Club is offering our support to their efforts.

More information about the nature of the threat can be found in this article on the Birdguides website.

BirdingASIA 25 distributed

Oriental Bird Club members should now have received their latest issue of BirdingASIA 25. Featuring a superb image of a Western Tragopan Tragopan melanocephalus photographed near Shilt, Great Himalayan National Park, Dirthan, Himachal Pradesh, India, by Jainy Kuriakose on the cover, the issue is packed full of bird news from around the region.

For anyone with an interest in birds of the Oriental region, subscribing to the Oriental Bird Club to receive your biannual BirdingASIA and the Club’s Journal, Forktail, is an absolute necessity – so if you  haven’t done so already, subscribe today!

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.

Flappy makes a flying start

An exciting new project is currently underway to find the wintering grounds of East Asia's Common Cuckoos.

Through the Beijing Cuckoo Project, satellite transmitters have been placed on five Common Cuckoos in order to track their international movements.

The birds were all trapped in the Beijing area where local schoolchildren have chosen 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 Oriental Bird Club has sponsored a transmitter on one of the cuckoos, which the pupils at Dulwich International School, Beijing, chose to name Flappy McFlapperson.

The project follows a hugely successful study on Common Cuckoos breeding in the United Kingdom that for several years has tracked the birds' movements between Europe and their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa.

That project attracted huge interest, both from the scientific community and from those with an interest in the natural environment.

The Beijing Cuckoo Project similarly aims to engage Chinese audiences about the wonders of bird migration with a view to promoting conservation, and help 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.

Speculation is rife about whether the birds will head for: Southeast Asia or, like their European cousins, sub-Saharan Africa.

Flappy, which is probably of the race canorus (blood analysis should confirm), has already provided some interesting insights into Common Cuckoo migration in the region. Following her fitting with a transmitter at Cuihu Urban Wetland Park, she first headed east then  NNW and is currently on the border of Mongolia and Russia. The route taken suggests she flew in an arc around the Mongolian Plateau.

Remarkably a second female cuckoo, tagged 161315, followed almost precisely the same route and at one point the two were within 50 km of one another in the Hentiyn Mountains. However, female 161315  carried on even further north and is now around 200 km east of Lake Baikal.

By contrast the three tagged male cuckoos, probably of the race bakeri, have all remained in the Beijing area.

You can keep up-to-date with all the latest developments through the Beijing Cuckoo Project pages on the Birding Beijing website, which includes further migration maps.

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.

Trade wiping out Indonesia’s bird species

Indonesia’s national bird – the Javan Hawk-eagle – is one of those most at risk © Chris R Shepherd / TRAFFIC

Jakarta, Indonesia, 26th May 2016 — A new study published in the latest issue of Forktail, the journal of the Oriental Bird Club, has revealed that 13 bird species—including Indonesia’s national bird, the Javan Hawk-eagle—found in Sundaic Indonesia are at serious risk of extinction because of excessive over-harvesting.

The study, Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia, also finds that an additional 14 bird subspecies are in danger of extinction. The driver behind this crisis is the enormous demand for birds for the domestic pet trade.

The keeping of birds as pets in Indonesia is an integral part of the national culture, yet the high levels of demand for some species have fuelled excessive hunting with the populations of many rapidly disappearing.

Besides the Javan Hawk-eagle, the other full species at risk include the Silvery Woodpigeon, Helmeted Hornbill, Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet, Javan Green Magpie, Black-winged Myna, Bali Myna, Straw-headed Bulbul, Javan White-eye, Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush, Sumatran Laughingthrush and Java Sparrow.

Although most of them are kept as pets, the Helmeted Hornbill is an exception: as TRAFFIC recently revealed, thousands are being illegally killed and traded for their unique solid bill casques, carved as a substitute for elephant ivory, to meet demand in China.

Another of them, the Javan Green Magpie, was recognized as a full species as recently as 2013—and simultaneously documented as in grave danger of extinction owing to trade pressure. In direct response, the Threatened Asian Songbird Alliance (TASA), operating as a formal body of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), initiated a programme of captive breeding in a number of zoos, as assurance colonies, for security and propagation purposes.

Such conservation breeding is the last hope for some of the taxa affected. According to the study: “Regrettably five subspecies…are probably already extinct, at least in the wild, due primarily to trade.” They include one subspecies of a parrot (Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet), three subspecies of White-rumped Shama, an accomplished songster and one of the Hill Myna, popular because of its ability to mimic human voices.

“Whether its species or subspecies, the message is the same: excessive trade is wiping out Indonesia’s wild bird species at an alarming rate” said Dr Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC’s Director for Southeast Asia, and a co-author of the study.

“Despite the alarming scale and consequences of the bird trade, governments and even conservation organizations often don't view this issue as a high priority. This hampers efforts to prevent further losses.”

The solutions to the bird trade crisis in Indonesia lie in a combination of better law enforcement, public awareness campaigns, in situ management, conservation breeding, conversion of trappers to wardens and field, market and genetic surveys, say the study’s authors.

Meanwhile as certain favoured species disappear because of trapping, others are targeted as “next-best” substitutes, while commercial breeders sometimes hybridise taxa for “better” effects, leading to further conservation complexities.

The study’s authors also consider whether commercial breeding could help alleviate the situation, but conclude that “while attractive in theory, [commercial breeding] presents difficulties that are probably insurmountable in practice.”

Conservation breeding is the focus for efforts to save the Javan Green-magpie © Chester Zoo

Forktail 31 published

OBC Members will now have received, or shortly be receiving, their copy of Forktail 31 appeared later than anticipated, for which the Club apologies. The delay was due to technical problems outside of our control. However, we are sure members will consider it has certainly been worth the wait. The latest issue is packed full of 14 full papers and 7 short notes covering a wide variety of topics. Among the main papers is one documenting the extinctions or near-extinctions caused by excessive wild trapping and trade in a number of Asian bird species. This is an issue of growing concern, but there is gathering momentum for action to be taken.

A paper on the number of species and subspecies in the Red-bellied Pitta Erythropitta erythrogaster complex is certain to be of particular interest to pitta-listers.

Non-members will have to wait until 2018 before they can download all the papers from Forktail 31. The Club's policy is to make the scientific information freely available three years after publication date. The papers from Forktail 29 will therefore soon be available on this website.

Volunteers sought to survey Yellow-breasted Buntings in Mongolia

Male Yellow-breasted Bunting © G. Amarkhuu

Populations of Yellow-breasted Bunting, Emberiza aureola, are rapidly declining across their range and the species has recently been classified as Endangered by IUCN. They were once common in the northern Palearctic from Finland and Belarus, eastwards to north-east Asia. Mainly due to excessive hunting in China and several other reasons, the species has declined across its range and become quite rare. However, ecological aspects of the decline remain unclear.

It is vital to understand the breeding ecology and migratory behaviour of this species to help identifying conservation actions in future. During the breeding season in June 2016, we want to find and identify locations suitable for deploying geo-locators next year and establishing a long-term population study and monitoring for this species.

We are looking for volunteers who can help us to find breeding localities of Yellow-breasted Bunting in north-eastern Mongolia. However, due to lack of funding and urgency of the issue, Mongolian biologists cannot do this on their own.

We seek volunteers who are able and willing to pay for costs related to their travel and participation in field surveys in Mongolia in the first half of June 2016. We can help arrange the logistical support you will need while you are in Mongolia. The field survey will last 2-3 weeks in June, and we would appreciate volunteers willing to contribute their time and resources during this period.

If you are interested, please contact:

Mr. Batmunkh Davaasuren at Wildlife Science and Conservation Center of Mongolia, batmunkh@wscc.org.mn, or

Mr. Alex Ngari at BirdLife International, Alex.Ngari@birdlife.org

BirdingASIA 24 published

Oriental Bird Club members should now have received their latest issue of BirdingASIA 24. Featuring a superb image of a Rufous-bellied Niltava Niltava sundara by Jainy Kuriakose on the cover, the issue is packed full of bird news from around the region.

Articles include the latest taxonomic updates - splits and other changes - through to little known birding areas in the Philippines, together with all the latest conservation news.

For anyone with an interest in birds of the Oriental region, subscribing to the Oriental Bird Club to receive your biannual BirdingASIA and the Club's Journal, Forktail, is an absolute necessity - so if you  haven't done so already, subscribe today!

Mixed news for Asia's vultures

Slender-billed Vultures, Assam (c) James Eaton / Birdtour Asia

The latest issue of the IUCN's Vulture Specialist Group newsletter (PDF, 200KB) has been published. Covering vulture news from around the world, the newsletter includes mixed news from Asia where, on the positive side, there is a growing prospect of the first releases back to the wild of Critically Endangered vulture species in Nepal and India.

Offset against this, however, are ongoing concerns over the continuing use of the vulture-killing drug diclofenac and derivatives thereof: one Indian pharmaceutical company is challenging in court the latest ban on multi-dose vials of the human formulations. Meanwhile a paper demonstrating that aceclofenac (a pro-drug to diclofenac) is indeed metabolised directly to diclofenac in cattle has been published this month, highlighting the urgent need for a veterinary ban.

Forktail 28 papers available

First published in 2012, all 18 full articles and the 19 short communications from Forktail 28 are now available for free download online through the Forktail 28 page on the OBC website.

OBC Autumn Meeting 2015

The OBC Autumn Meeting, incorporating the 31st AGM, will be held in the Wilkinson Room, St John the Evangelist, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8RN on Saturday 5th September 2015. The meeting starts at 11:00 and all are welcome - please bring your friends. Snacks, cakes and hot and cold drinks will be available all day.

Sales by WildSounds Prize draw in aid of the OBC Conservation Fund The AGM, at which only OBC members may vote, will be held at 12:00

Parking in side streets around the venue is very limited and we recommend that you travel by rail where possible or use the 'Park and Ride' service (www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/info/20149/park_and_ride). Walking time from Cambridge Station forecourt is about 15-20 minutes. Walk up Station Road to the junction with Hills Road and turn left. The venue is on the left hand side of Hills Road, about 400m after it crosses the railway, directly opposite Homerton College. There is a frequent bus service from Drummer Street bus station via the railway station forecourt, and along Hills Road. For a map, type the postcode CB2 8RN into ww.streetmap.co.uk.

Please find here the Minutes of the 2014 AGM, held in November 2014 and the OBC Accounts for 2014, both in PDF format.

Programme 10:30 Doors open - hot and cold drinks available 11:00 Opening remarks by the Chairman 11:15 'China's Grippers' - a talk on the most sought-after birds of China by Pete Morris 12:00 Annual General Meeting 12:30 Lunch break - refreshments and sales 13:30 'Baer's Pochard: responding to a critical situation' by Dr Debbie Pain, Director of Conservation at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust 14:15 'In search of the endemic birds of Taiwan' by Andy Walker 15:00 'Restoration of Indonesian rainforest - sustainable model or Government whim?' by Andrew Impey, Head of Global Habitats, RSPB 15:45 Break for refreshments and sales 16:00 'Bangladesh's Spoon-billed Sandpiper and World Shorebirds Day' by Mya-Rose Craig (aka Birdgirl) 16:30 'Videoing around the Philippines' by Keith Blomerley 17:15 Prize draw and closing remarks by the Chairman 17:30 Meeting closes

Illegal cage bird trade threatens Black-winged Myna

Illegal trade is pushing the Critically Endangered Black-winged Myna towards extinction © Khaleb Yordan

Jakarta, Indonesia, 13th August—So rare that captive breeding centres have been robbed, the soaring prices and drop in availability of Black-winged Mynas in trade point to a species on the brink.

Black-winged Mynas are prized in the cage bird trade for their striking black and white plumage, lively behaviour and singing ability; today their extreme rarity in the wild adds to their desirability.

The species is native only to the islands of Java and Bali and is protected under Indonesian law. Despite this, illegal capture in the wild continues, while trade is carried out openly in Indonesia’s notorious bird markets.

Surveys by TRAFFIC and Oxford Brookes University researchers between 2010 and 2014 found significantly fewer Black-winged Mynas available in the three largest bird markets in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta: down by three-quarters since the 1990s. This coincides with a more than ten-fold increase in asking prices and the near complete decimation of the species in the wild.

The crisis facing the Black-winged Myna and other Asian songbirds is scheduled to come under expert scrutiny next month at the inaugural Asian Songbird Crisis Summit, taking place on 26-29th September 2015 in Singapore.

Just a few hundred individuals of the once common Black-winged Myna remain in the wild and the species is currently assessed as Critically Endangered by IUCN.

The birds are now so valuable that a captive breeding centre, where birds were being reared for conservation purposes, suffered a double robbery in June 2014, and almost the entire breeding stock, more than 150 birds were stolen.

While the bulk of trade in Black-winged Mynas appears to supply domestic demand, there is also an unknown level of international trade.

The authors of the latest study, published in Bird Conservation International, recommend that Indonesia lists the species in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

“An Appendix III-listing is essentially a call for support by a country to assess the international trade in a species,” explained Vincent Nijman, Professor at Oxford Brookes University.

“That information would be essential for devising an action plan to save the species,” he added.

There is an unkown level of international trade in Black-winged Mynas © James Eaton / BirdtourAsiaThe demise of the Black-winged Myna is an eerie reminder of the fate of its close relative, the Bali Myna. The two are similar in appearance, and indeed the trade in Black-winged Mynas partly arose as a replacement species for the increasingly rare and expensive Bali Myna.

Commercial captive breeding is unlikely to remove pressure from remaining wild populations of Black-winged Mynas as long as enforcement efforts to prohibit the poaching and trade of the birds are absent or inefficient.

“TRAFFIC is extremely concerned over the increasing threat of extinction from trade to the Black-winged Myna”, said Dr Chris Shepherd, Regional Director of TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.

The open and widespread illegal trade in birds in Indonesia, is pushing these mynas and many other species down a dangerous path.

“Indonesian authorities should demonstrate willingness to uphold their own national wildlife laws. It is high time for uncompromising and swift action against the illegal trade in the notorious bird markets,” said Shepherd.

Illegal trade pushing the Critically Endangered Black-winged Myna Acridotheres melanopterus towards imminent extinction (PDF, 218 KB) by Chris R. Shepherd, Vincent Nijman, Kanitha Krishnasamy, James A. Eaton and Serene C. L. Chng is published in the journal Bird Conservation International.

100,000th image milestone for Oriental Bird Images

The 100,000th image on OBI: Bar-headed Goose at Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, Dholpur, Rajasthan, India. (c) Sunil Singhal.

Oriental Bird Images, www.orientalbirdimages.org, the online photographic image resource library of the Oriental Bird Club today celebrated with the upload of its 100,000th image.

The stunning landmark image is a portrait of a Bar-headed Goose taken by Sunil Singhal at Chambal Wildlife Sanctuary, Dholpur, Rajasthan, India on 16 March this year. Bar-headed Geese are known to migrate over the Himalayas at altitudes of more than 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).

“The uploading of the 100,000th image is testament to the years of dedicated hard work put in by a multitude of unpaid volunteers over the past 13 years since OBI was launched,” said Krys Kazmierczak, who conceived the idea for a publicly accessible online image library for Asian bird species and subspecies.

“The library speaks volumes for the sheer dedication of more than 1,500 amateur and professional bird photographers who have freely contributed their stunning images to this resource for bird researchers worldwide.”

Oriental Bird Images (OBI) includes photographic illustrations to a staggering 2,876 Asian bird species, around 99% of all those found in the region, and also includes examples of each known subspecies of the majority of species illustrated. There are just 29 “missing” species from the 2,905 species recognised by the Oriental Bird Club in the region.

Today, OBI is among the most visited bird images libraries on the internet, and has proved of immense value to the scientific community, ornithologists, conservationists and anyone with an interest in Oriental Birds.

“OBI goes way beyond just an image gallery for bird photographers to post their images—it is a vital academic resource for anyone with an interest in the birds of the Oriental region,” said Richard Grimmett, Director of Conservation at BirdLife International and author of several bird field guides to the Oriental region.

“I consult OBI on a regular basis when carrying out research on the Asia’s bird life—the site’s importance as a conservation tool is immense.”

ENDS

About Oriental Bird Club
The Oriental Bird Club, UK registered charity 297242, is for people around the world who are interested in birds of the Oriental region and their conservation. The Club was founded in 1984 and has around 2,000 members.

The Club exists: to encourage an interest in wild birds of the Oriental region and their conservation to promote the work of regional bird and nature societies to collate and publish information on Oriental birds

Through the generous support of members and corporate sponsors, the OBC conservation fund has supported more than 250 conservation projects throughout Asia, primarily run by local people. More than £200,000 has been invested in conservation in the region since 1984.

Website: www.orientalbirdclub.org Twitter: @orientbirdclub Facebook: /groups/OrientalBirdClub/