SUMATRA, Indonesia — Armed with a machete, some sticky gum and a recording of birdsong on his phone, “Peni” makes his way into the forest. He’s searching for songbirds in the Sumatran jungle, specifically the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), known locally as murai batu. The popularity of murai batu has boomed in the past decade due to its complex song and striking looks. In Java, keeping caged birds is more than a hobby — it’s deeply cultural, indicating status and maintaining a connection to nature. The booming competition circuit has transformed this traditional pastime into a lucrative industry, with prizes such as cars and large sums of cash up for grabs. A champion murai batu can sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
Murai batu is a widespread species, its natural range reaching from India to Papua New Guinea. However, within Indonesia and other countries with a cage-bird tradition, the species faces serious decline. Conservationists say some subspecies within Indonesia have been driven to extinction, while many forests on Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, are believed to be largely devoid of murai batu, pushing the search for new birds to other parts of Indonesia.
Until 2018, murai batu was listed as a protected species under Indonesian law. However, it was removed after lobbying from breeder associations, a decision that critics say has made enforcement difficult at a time when murai batu were already under pressure from poaching and habitat loss.
For poachers like Peni, catching murai batu once offered a financial lifeline when his crops failed. Today the forests are much quieter.
Watch the film to explore how tradition, survival and conservation converge on one small bird.
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Banner image: Collage featuring a white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus) and a poacher.
The man who risked everything to steal bird eggs | Wild Targets
Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.1 We’re going to trap some birds. We’re looking for murai batu. They
usually hang out in this spot. (Wild bird sound.) Can you hear it? Can
you hear it? No, the ones over there! Birds from the jungle area are
illegal to buy and sell. But due to economic factors, we ignore these
rules. The first time I captured a murai batu, I sold it for 800,000
rupiah ($48). To attract the birds, we use the audio from this phone. We
lure them with the sounds, and wait until one comes into the sap trap.
This is the sap I brought. We’d smear it like this. This is cooking oil.
Once a bird gets stuck in the sap, we can use the cooking oil to get it
off. This is so we don’t damage their feathers. A murai batu is not only
valued for its voice, but also for its long tail. The male birds are
highly valued for the singing contests. My name is Jusef Rohman. My
hobby is taking care of murai batu and other birds. I breed the birds,
and take them to singing contests. Lately I’ve been drawn more to murai
batu because of how high they can sell for. These contests increase
their value. Murai batu are incredibly popular these days, and there are
tons of contests held everywhere. If a bird wins a contest, its price
will go up. It can go anywhere from 500,000 rupiah ($30) to 1 million,
100 million … … all the way up to 1 billion rupiah ($60,000)! This house
where I breed the birds, I bought using money from selling birds. It was
enough to buy the land, build the house — even though it’s not finished
— praise be to God. Let’s put the cage on. Now we’re on our way to a
bird singing contest. Hopefully this bird can do its best, and do its
master proud. On to the sixth session, the 16G Class for murai batu….
Contestants, are you ready? Ready! All together at three! One, two,
three! Now go hang them! There are several factors that we grade on.
First is duration, second is volume, third is rhythm, fourth is
showmanship, and fifth is physical presentation. Start calling! When it
pauses, call it! See, he moved! We’re looking for the top three in the
16G Class. 16, 26, and 35! Praise be to God, the contest has concluded.
My bird, Ruby, won first place in the most prestigious class. Capturing
the murai batu is all about luck. Back then, within a week in the
jungle, I could capture five birds. The prices were also still high.
These days, catching one bird a month is already a blessing. In my
opinion, the culture or tradition of keeping birds in captivity… … or
poaching in general, contributes to the extinction of birds. Such
cultures need to change. You can do it as long as you can ensure that it
will not cause the extinction of murai batu in the wild. Such that it
won’t disappear from your village. It’s actually simple. What needs
protection is the people, not the birds. I poach birds due to economic
reasons. As a farmer, harvests are very uncertain. Sometimes I have
work, and sometimes I don’t. The complexity of bird poaching is not only
due to technical reasons, … but in the social, economic, cultural,
power, and political aspects of society. Another problem is that bird
enthusiasts tend to be rich people. No matter how many are bred, none
are released back into the wild. So while there may be many birds in the
market, there are few in the wild.
Credits
