Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine October 2015 | Page 140

138

Travel | Birding in Paradise

© Filip Verbelen ; © AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA / Shutterstock

Out of 1,605 documented
birds known to live in the
country, 381 are found only
within Indonesia; they are
not even found in closely
bordering countries such as
Malaysia, Timor Leste or
Papua New Guinea.

Endemic Indonesian honeyeater.
The majestic Mount Rinjani rises
3,726m above sea level on Lombok.

The reason for this staggering diversity is the
geography of the archipelago nation. Apart
from Russia (which is in both Europe and
Asia), it is the only country in the world to
straddle two very different zoogeographical
regions: Western Indonesia, including
Sumatra, Kalimantan and Java with Bali in
the east, is part of Asia, while the rest is part
of Australasia. From Lombok eastward –
including Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and
Maluku – is a transitional subregion named
Wallacea, after Sir Alfred Russel Wallace, who
explored these islands in the mid-1800s.
Once you get to the island of New Guinea
you are in Australasia proper, and the birdlife
is dominated by Australian groups such as
birds-of-paradise, fantails, robins,
honeyeaters, bowerbirds and whistlers, while
families that dominate the west have
disappeared, such as woodpeckers, barbets,
babblers and bulbuls.
This variation, and the isolation of many of
the islands in the enormous archipelago, has
generated a complex avifauna. There are a
few countries in South America such as
Colombia and Peru that have more bird
species than Indonesia; but, as mentioned,
no country has more unique species. Many of
the birds are rare and occur in low numbers;
because of habitat loss and trapping for the
bird trade, many have declining populations
and are regarded as threatened with global
extinction by BirdLife International and the

IUCN (the International Union for
Conservation of Nature). Indonesia has 346
species threatened or near-threatened with
global extinction, sadly also a world record!
(Brazil is a distant second.)
What this means is you can live in Java and
then pop over to Manado in Sulawesi for a
few days and you will notice that the birds
around you are very different! You are in the
same country, but in a different subregion;
even the birds in your hotel garden will be
different, and if you go out of your way and
visit designated nature reserves, you can see
dozens of species that you simply could never
find on your home island. Some are located
in inaccessible lowland mangrove swamps,
others only on a remote mountain peak on a
single, isolated island. Fortunately, birdwatching has become more popular lately,
local birdwatching clubs are popping up, and
some birders do indeed travel to these
remote places to explore the rare species.
And if you find this aspect of birdwatching
daunting – looking for rare species in
remote places – start out small. Birding is a
hobby for everyone; even your local city park
will have some birds. Learn to identify the 20
or so most common birds in your local area
and work your way out from there. Who
knows, maybe one day you will be the
first person ever to individually find and
record all 1,605 species!