A New Formula for Bali Starling Release

Since the beginning of its establishment, Begawan has been committed to preserving the existence of Bali’s endemic birds in their natural habitat. We have a variety of programs in place to maintain and increase their population in nature, ranging from how to care for, how to breed, and what to prepare in readiness for release into the wild. We continue to strive to provide the best in Bali Starling conservation.

For releases, we need to undertake a variety of tasks, firstly selecting bird pairs which we feel will breed successfully and be able to find food when released, preparing release sites or locations after conducting site surveys, formulating socialisation programs with the community around the release site, and monitoring birds when they are released into their new habitat.

In 2021 we released three pairs of Bali Starlings and in 2022 after evaluating these releases, we will conduct our releases slightly differently. This year we have built a quarantine cage made of paranet at the exact release location enclosing a tree that will provide a suitable nest site within a community compound. The Bali Starlings that we will release are quarantined for a few weeks within the paranet enclosure to get used to their surroundings. We also prepare nesting materials for these enclosures to allow the birds to build nests inside.

When the Bali Starling pair has made a nest, it is very likely that the pair that are released will stay at that location. This quarantine enclosure will be removed when they are released, the net covering the tree will be removed, and this Bali Starling pair can continue to live in the wild. In addition to placing a nest box inside the enclosure, we also install other nest boxes in the chosen location to provide other options for ‘homes’. We hope that the Bali Starlings released will settle in the specified location so we can easily monitor their progress. (Mastika Anandam)