Tag Archives: Petungkriyono

01Nov/22

Petungkriyono Bird Race 2022

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all participants, guest speakers and commitee

With the announcement of the winners, the Petungkriyono Bird Race drew to a close on Sunday, 23 October 2022. This competition cum workshop, which had centred on the Black Canyon tourist area in Tinalum Hamlet (Kayupuring Village), lasted three days in total.

In the General category, Team MuLia comprising Wahyudi and Candra Setyawan Nurwijaya came out on top. The delegation from the Youth Organisation of Tlogoguwo Village, Purworejo, managed to beat the seven other registered teams.

The first and second runners-up in the same category were both teams from Jakarta. In second place were Muhammad Bilal Yogaswara and Ainaya Nurfadila (Team Butuh Pendamping Hidup) who represented Simpul Indonesia, and coming third were Aditya Nurrahma Badri and Niken Rahmawati (Team Finding Burung Dulu), from Finding Orchid.

The General category also comprised several other youth groups, agroforestry organisations, as well as the Masyarakat Mitra Polhut, who hail from all over Java, including Jakarta, Pekalongan, Purworejo, Klaten, and Yogyakarta.

participants activity

For the Student category, Team Ngalor-Ngidul won the first place, representing Paguyuban Pengamat Burung Jogja (Birdwatchers’ Association of Yogyakarta). The association, which brings together campus-based birders in Yogyakarta, sent Raden Nicosius Liontino Alieser and Rio Syahrudin.

The second place was won by Muhammad Nafis Ufsi and Ridza Dewananta Subagyo (Team Haliaster team), who took part on behalf of Mapala Haliaster (the Student Naturalists’ Association) of Diponegoro University, Semarang. Placing third were David Suharjanto and Haqqul Fata (Team Bionic) from Kelompok Pengamat Burung Bionic (Bionic Birdwatching Group), Yogyakarta State University. David had been tasked with briefing all participants on the Indonesian Birdwatcher’s Code of Conduct before the race started.

It was in the Student category that we had the most intense competition. The winners had to beat dozens of other teams representing bird and wildlife interest groups from a wide array of universities, namely Jakarta State University, National University, IPB University, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Malang Agricultural Institute, Malang State University, and Airlangga University.

The winners were each given a trophy and prizes worth a total of 12 million rupiah. In addition, a special prize for the Most Dedicated Team was awarded to Team Rangkong Racing Club from Mapalipma (Student Naturalists’ Association of the Malang Agricultural Institute) consisting of Arrayaana Artaka and Ahmad Nizar Zulmi Yahya

Chesnut-breasted Malkoha, (Phaenicophaeus curvirostris), encountered by participants in the 2022 Petungkriyono Bird Race

Conservation Workshop

In addition to the competition, the event also included a conservation workshop that was divided into three sessions.

The first featured Untoro Tri Pamungkas, Perhutani chief administrator and Director of the SwaraOwa  Arif Setiawan as speakers. This session was all about conservation in the Petungkriyono forest area.

The next workshop session started with a keynote speech by Waskito Kukuh Wibowo from Birdpacker, Malang, who covered various aspects of birdwatching ecotourism in Indonesia. Kuswoto, chairman of Welo Asri, was the opening speaker representing managers of tourist sites in Kayupuring Village.

the winner General Category

At the third and final session, which focussed on community-based bird conservation, Imam Taufiqurrahman from the SwaraOwa Foundation delivered the first talk. He explained how seven villages had been involved in a survey of Javan blue-banded kingfisher populations.

The second presentation was by Kelik Suparno, chairman of the Wanapaksi KTH Conservation Division, Jatimulyo. He talked us through his group’s efforts to turn Jatimulyo into a Bird-Friendly Village. Their flagship project is the nest adoption programme, which they have been running since 2017. As of October 2022, the programme has successfully protected 61 nests belonging to 15 bird species, including increasingly rare songbirds such as the Javan blue flycatcher (Cyornis banyumas) and Brown-cheeked bulbul (Alophoixus bres), yielding a total of 93 fledglings.

In total, this nest protection programme involves 45 adopters, both individuals and institutions, and 29 land owners. To date, it has raised more than 45 million rupiah for parties such as loca govt, landowners, and KTH Wanapaksi as coordinators.

Concluding the workshop was a debrief and discussion round moderated by Swis Winasis, the creator of the Burungnesia application. Swis Winasis began with a summary of the presentations of the previous speakers in order to get participants thinking and talking about how birdwatchers can contribute to bird conservation.

He then introduced to us the concept of the silent forest. This describes a situation where birds and other animals have largely disappeared from their habitats due to hunting and trading going unchecked. The verdant Petungkriyono forest is in fact the perfect example of a silent forest.

Swis Winasis, a Batu native, elaborated that in total, the participants had seen or heard no more than 32 bird species having spent half a day in the Petungkriyono forest, going by their notes. The average number of species contestants recorded was between eight and 10.

The ensuing discussion round was meant to introduce the projects of the organisations involved. One of the topics that subsequently emerged was the 10th Meeting of Indonesian Birdwatchers. The intention is now for the event to take place in Jakarta

After having been called off for two years in a row due to COVID, no plans had yet been made for a future edition of that meeting. In the discussion, representatives from Jakarta were tasked to draw up a conference agenda with the birdwatching community there.

The Petungkriyono Bird Race 2022 would not have been possible without the support and assistance of many parties. The Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), Oriental Bird Club (OBC), Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, Zoo Ostrava, and Chances for Nature were the main sponsors. Perhutani supported the event by providing a location to facilitate the flow of participants, funds, and door  prize.

As the organiser of the event, the SwaraOwa Foundation have also received invaluable assistance from various members of the Kayupuring Village community, especially the residents of Tinalum and Sokokembang hamlets. In addition, the organising committee comprised members of the Mendolo Young Farmers Association, Pekalongan University students, and Doro residents.

These conservation-themed competitions and workshops were organised in collaboration with the Black Canyon and Welo Asri tourist organisations, who provided the venue. Burungnesia and Birdpacker provided the applications used in the competition, as well as various door prizes.

Ticket to the Moon sponsored the main door gift for all participants. Other memorabilia were provided by Owa Coffee, Perhutani, and the Department of Environment and Forestry of Central Java Province. Tower Bersama Group provided free health services for one day for participants and committee members.

Written by : Imam Taufiqurrahman, translated by T.T Chan

10Jul/22

Citizen scientists seeking the Javan Blue-banded kingfisher

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Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher by Siswanto, 2022

More than 50 people are involved in our ongoing survey of the Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher (Alcedo euryzona). Divided into several teams, they have to date looked for the critically endangered bird along five rivers in the Pekalongan area, making numerous observations about the habitat in the process and recording other bird species present. This SwaraOwa project, supported by the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) and the Oriental Bird Club (OBC), shows us what the citizen science movement can achieve.

Before we started on the survey, we held workshops on bird identification and survey techniques for residents from seven villages around the Petungkriyono, Doro and Lebakbarang forests. The event started in Mendolo Village on 11-12 March, and was subsequently repeated in Pungangan Village (25 April), Kayupuring Village (27 April) and Sidoharjo Village (26 May).

Our workshop at Pungangan, 25 April 2022

During the workshops, we taught villagers how to identify the Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher and distinguish it from other species of kingfisher. In terms of survey techniques, we introduced participants to Google Earth to help them find their way to the observation points. Along each of the rivers we covered, participants surveyed consecutive 1 km-long segments that contained five monitoring points 200 m apart from each other. Stationed at each of these points were two team members, who conducted observations simultaneously for one hour.

In addition to confirming the presence of the Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher, observers were asked to record the condition of the local habitat, other bird species observed and any human activity encountered. All this information was entered onto a data sheet.

Trial survey at Mendolo, 11-12 March 2022

As of early June, we have covered 29 of a total of about 37 km of river sections. This figure consists of 10 km on the Welo River, 6 km on the Pakuluran River, 5 km on the Blimbing River (including the Siranda River), 2 km on the Sengkarang River (including the Kumenep River), and 6 km on the Wisnu River.

The survey has produced very satisfactory results so far. We found Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher along two rivers, namely Welo and Wisnu. The kingfishers were found at an elevation of 308-715 m on the Welo River, and at 638-776 m on the Wisnu River. These sightings have extended the known distribution of the species.

Survey sites at Welo, June 2022

The encounter on the westernmost Wisnu River was quite impressive. The Wisnu team, Mendolo villagers who are part of the Mendolo Young Farmers Association, had previously covered 4 km along the river on three visits, which did not turn up a single Javan Blue-banded Kingfisher. It was only on 24 April that the team encountered two individuals, one male and one female.

Deserving of special mention is Siswanto Abimanyu, a resident of Mendolo Kulon Hamlet, whose quick reflexes got us an excellent photograph of the female bird. Sis, as he is known, was at a monitoring point with his colleague M. Risqi Ridholah. It was more than half an hour into their wait when suddenly the female flew in from downstream and landed only about 3 m away from them. A few seconds later she was off again, flying further upstream, but luckily that was enough for Siswanto to snap a picture of her.

Getting photographic evidence to prove the kingfishers were there was one major achievement of the survey. Not only that, the discussion sessions after each round of observation have revealed a total of more than 90 bird species in the area. These include several important and endangered species, such as the Javan hawk-eagle (Nisaetus bartelsi), the Wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus) and the Sangkar white-eye (Zosterops melanurus). Some of this data was logged into the Burungnesia app as a contribution by the Pekalongan community to science and bird conservation.

Written by : Imam Taufiqurrahman, translated by T T. Chan

03Jan/22

Protecting the Javan blue-banded kingfisher

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The sighting of a Javan blue-banded kingfisher in Petungkriyono in October 2018 (report in Chan & Setiawan 2019) gives us renewed hope that this globally very rare bird may still be clinging on to existence in undersurveyed areas. However, trying to conserve the bird at that particular site in the western part of the Dieng Mountains also presents us with some challenges.

Prior to the Petungkriyono sighting, this endemic to Java was only reported from two national parks in West Java in recent years: Halimun Salak and Gede Pangrango. It had also been recorded from six other locations by naturalists and researchers during the colonial era, namely Jasinga, Cimarinjung, Pelabuhanratu, and Cikahuripan (West Java), Rampoa (Central Java), and Kali Sanen (East Java), but seems to have vanished from these sites.

riverine habitat of  Javan bluebanded Kingfisher

Even at sites it is known to inhabit, the Javan blue-banded kingfisher, whose scientific name is Alcedo euryzona, is rarely encountered. Nowhere is it common, and it can only be found in lowland rainforests where there is an abundance of clean water, rocky streams and rivers. This bird is therefore known as a river-dependent species.

In Java, there are not many sites left which fulfil these specific habitat criteria. Those that still exist are likely to be protected or in reserves. This is indeed the case for the Petungkriyono forest, which is a protected forest area managed by Perhutani, the state-owned enterprise overseeing the use of forest resources. In recognition of its importance to both humans and wildlife, the Petungkriyono forest has now been classified as an Essential Ecosystem Area to be managed collaboratively by different stakeholders.

While protected status is a good first step, it falls short of ensuring that the area is fully safe from encroachment. Various communities have long inhabited the area around the Petungkriyono forest, for which reason the forest is important not only to its flora and fauna, but also as a source of livelihood to local people. We therefore expect the development of the local economy, including that of tourist attractions, to continue apace. Faced with this considerable challenge, all parties who have a stake in the Petungkriyono forest need to be actively involved in protecting the Javan blue-banded kingfisher if the bird is to be guranteed a future.

Another challenge that must be overcome stems from how little we know about this kingfisher. Can it be found along all rivers in the forest? What exactly are the conditions it needs to survive? We have yet to find answers to even these basic questions, not to mention those details about the bird’s behaviour, diet, population size, breeding patterns, and so on.

Conducting such a baseline study is of the utmost importance because the total Javan blue-banded kingfisher population worldwide is estimated to number less than 250 individuals. In other words, this is a Critically Endangered species by IUCN Red List standards, only one level removed from extinction in the wild.

The SwaraOwa is firmly committed to protecting the Javan blue-banded kingfisher. A group of young people who previously  started initiation of community development and conservation for Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) and Mentawai Gibbon ( Hylobates klosii), now have been try to enhance biodiversity value within the gibbons habitat of this region. We are actively involved in efforts to encourage the collaborative management of the Petungkriyono forest area. We are also working closely with the local community to collect field data and find out more about the bioecology of this kingfisher. With the support of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP) and the Oriental Bird Club (OBC), we hope to make the conservation of the Javan blue-banded kingfisher a reality.

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Written in bahasa  by : Imam Taufiqurrahman, e-mail : ornyman18@gmail.com, and translation by TT Chan