Trade is the straw breaking the Straw-headed Bulbul’s back, says new paper

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A newly-published journal paper in Bird Conservation International “The final straw? An overview of Straw-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus trade in Indonesia” shows that the species is still very much in demand for the songbird trade.

Market inventories in Kalimantan and Java between July 2014 and June 2015 recorded a total of 71 individuals in 11 markets in eight cities; this includes five birds that were kept as pets and were not for sale. Comparing this against historical literature, researchers found that as numbers in markets decreased, prices soared to over 20 times those recorded in 1987. This availability-to-price relationship suggests that the inflation in prices is linked directly to the rarity of the birds in the wild.

The Straw-headed Bulbul’s IUCN Red List conservation status was revised from Vulnerable to Endangered in 2015, but the authors believe that a Critically Endangered status more accurately reflects the situation.

Just 71 animals over a year seems miniscule when compared to tens of thousands of birds traded in the Indonesian market. However, each animal taken is one too many for a rare species that has disappeared from most of its original range, and whose survival is now hanging by a thread.” 

Kanitha Krishnasamy, Acting Regional Director for Southeast Asia. 

The species has most likely vanished from Myanmar, Thailand and Java, but small pockets remain in Sumatra, where there has been only one recent reported sighting since 2009. Populations in Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia have also greatly declined.

While most of the birds observed were said to be sourced from within Indonesia (Kalimantan and Sumatra), traders also openly admitted to importing birds from neighbouring countries. Although the species has been listed on CITES[1] Appendix II since 1997, no imports into Indonesia have been reported since 1999. This indicates that if birds were imported, they were done so illegally.  

“The Straw-headed Bulbul is currently not listed on the protected species list in Indonesia, one of the countries where it is most heavily traded,” said Serene Chng, co-author of the paper and TRAFFIC’s Programme Officer in Southeast Asia. “According it protected species status in the new national wildlife legislation could enable stronger action against traders illegally selling this species.”

Although some of the birds are said to be captive-bred or ranched, traders indicated that wild-caught individuals were considered superior because of their song quality. There was therefore an incentive to stock wild-caught birds over captive-bred individuals if traders could acquire them.

The paper also recommends listing the species on CITES Appendix I to further protect it from illegal international trade.

The Straw-headed Bulbul is one of the 28 priority species identified in the Conservation Strategy for Southeast Asian Songbirds in Trade to be most threatened by trade, and the calls in this paper mirrors those outlined in the Strategy.

TRAFFIC thanks the United States Department of State for supporting our work in Borneo, an anonymous donor for supporting our bird trade work in Indonesia and Wildlife Reserves Singapore for supporting our work on birds.