Indonesia – Java – Wait, There’s Birds Around Jakarta?!

After Gunung Gede we were headed towards Jakarta to do a little birding because we were a bit ahead of schedule. If you read the previous post, you might recall that it was an absolute disaster getting there. In case you missed it, it took us 12 hours to go 31 kilometers. Let me repeat, because something this absurd bears repeating: TWELVE HOURS TO GO 19 MILES! Yes, you read that right. We could have WALKED THERE FASTER. Nonetheless, by the time Ross, Alec and I arrived outside of Jakarta it was well after midnight. We ran into Cornell student Alec while birding around Gunung Gede and he happened to join us out of the blue to see some of the birds around Java, but prior to going on this trip we had planned to join up with Michael Kearns, an Australian birder whom we had done two previous trips with, and Irene Dy, a Philippine birder and one of the top Filipino bird guides. Due to some scheduling restraints, we weren’t meeting up with Michael until we flew into Sumatra and Irene had already been in Jakarta for a day and a half before we met up with her to bird. If we hadn’t been slightly ahead of schedule we wouldn’t have met up with her until we got to the airport to fly to Medan, but we were a bit ahead of schedule and opted to sneak a few more Javan birds into our itinerary – numbers 3 & 4 on the map.

Jakarta, as Indonesia’s capital and largest city, does not have much greenspace left. The city is already home to over 10 million people but with a rapidly growing population, Jakarta is projected to be the next big mega city and they already have more cars than they know what to do with. The ill-equipped roads leave the city gridlocked for hours on end and we really didn’t want to spend much time here. Few international tourists are in the habit of travelling around Jakarta and only use Jakarta as a stopover to other more attractive areas within Indonesia.  But being the largest city, it is also home to the International airport and we had a flight later that day but a full morning to get birding! No jungle habitat remains within the city, but there are a few areas that birds are still known to occur.

The first morning Ross, myself, Alec, and Irene all met up and birded a mangrove forest swamp. Let me set the scene: mangrove trees on either side, a decaying boardwalk to walk on, mildly polluted water underneath, and high-intensity humidity. And when I say “high-intensity humidity” I mean humidity that you’ve never felt unless you’ve actually visited southeast Asia. Surely no where else in the world has humidity quite like southeast Asia. For those readers who have never been in a mangrove forest, you may not know that mangroves are a type of tree that grows in brackish water in coastal areas best characterized by the tangled root system that holds the plant up. These tangled roots prevent debris from washing into the ocean, make for a great breeding ground for various types of fish, invertebrates and birds, and are a valuable ecosystem. In fact, many species, birds and otherwise, specialize in this type of environment. And of course you can’t forget about the mosquitoes!

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We arrived at Muara Angke and unfortunately the access is via a very rundown boardwalk that appeared like it might collapse at any given moment. Boards were downright disintegrating and the only maintenance done to fix this issue was to put a single plank on top requiring one to walk a tightrope while birding. In fact, it’s possible that the boardwalk is permanently closed due to its poor condition because Irene, who arrived a day before us, was turned away when she first showed up. Ross and Irene went out early and no one was around so they walked in and managed to get views of our main target, Javan Coucal. Unfortunately by the time Alec and I arrived (a full two hours after Ross and Irene had arrived) we only heard it call. The other big target was Bar-winged Prinia which we all had easily along with Javan Munia, Sunda Teal, and a bit out of place Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo. We attempted to circle the mangrove area to get better access but it seems that any previously known trails are no longer available due to a newly constructed housing complex, so we went back to the boardwalk and literally, walked the plank. When we went to leave however, the gate we entered had been locked behind us which is why I seriously think the boardwalk might be closed. For future visits I would recommend birding the northern section as this section appears to be off limits. Next up was to hire a boat to take us to Palau Rambut, a small island off the coast of Java that Milky Stork is known to nest from based on some outdated information Ross had managed to find.

As per the usual, when a foreigner arrives at a completely remote location the locals are taken aback by their presence. And that’s what happened to us. We arrived in this fishing village and gained a small following of toothless men as we went from boat to boat trying to coordinate for someone to take us the 4 km offshore so we could tick Milky Stork. But having a following isn’t exactly convenient when one boatman quotes you a ridiculous price and then follows you to the next boatman to be sure they don’t give it to you for any less. Eventually Ross headed further down in the village to see if we could get something a bit more reasonable while the rest of us distracted our toothless following. One fisherman quoted Ross 1,000,000 IDR but he just laughed and walked away until another man agreed to take us for 400,000 (~$28) IDR.

We shuttled to our fishing boat via an oversized piece of styrofoam and along the way had to climb over mountains of garbage on the beach. If you think that it is still okay to take a plastic straw in your beverage or plastic bags at the grocery store, clearly you’ve never seen the amount of plastic polluting the oceans. Styrofoam is the worst offender in my option and I do my best to avoid plastic as much as possible. Truly this kind of permanent garbage is a sight to see and hopefully a big eye-opener to what is going on in this planet we call home. Granted your plastic straw may not make it all the way to Indonesia, but saying no is a good place to start. Anyway, I digress. We hopped on to our boat and on the way out stopped at some fish trips that typically hold large concentrations of frigatebirds. Here we had great looks at Christmas Island Frigatebirds along with Little Black Cormorants sitting on the fishing posts. The boat we had wasn’t exactly a speedboat so by the time we arrived to the island we only had about an hour before we needed to turn back in order to make our flight to Sumatra in time.

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The outdated information we had said that accessing the island of Rambut was only 20,000 IDR but when we showed up the ranger, Woody, wanted 300,000 IDR per person and a permit from some agency in Jakarta! We didn’t have that kind of money on us, nor did we stop at the agency before showing up, but luckily we convinced him that we wouldn’t be long. He initially let us go but mere minutes later caught up to us on the trail and said that time is up and we must go. Truthfully he really could have turned us away, but I believe Woody genuinely cares about the native wildlife and appreciates other people who do as well. He agreed to help us out and took us to the main overlook on the island and proceeded to explain to us that Milky Stork are no longer nesting in July and seeing them at this time of year would require us to wait until afternoon when they return to roost. We were on a time crunch and simply couldn’t wait that long so we started scanning. We were all but giving up hope when Irene screams that a Milky Stork had flown in. We all only managed brief views before it landed out of sight. Luckily that same bird decided to pick up again and circle around our viewing platform allowing for amazing views. With our only target in the bag, and a time crunch to make it to the airport, we had to leave. We then climbed back into our boats and headed to the airport. While Rambut would be an incredibly interesting place to explore, with monitor lizards the size of adolescent Komodo Dragons and surely a plethora of other unique wildlife to find, if you are only going for Milky Stork, it might not be cost effective as you could technically tick this bird from the shoreline of Jakarta as Alec later proved. Regardless, Rambut would be an interesting place to explore.

The humidity is unparalleled in Indonesia. It’s basically 104° with 104% humidity. All it takes is walking outside and you are covered in sweat. Walk around looking for birds in a mangrove swamp, then take a boat out to a tiny island and run the trails and you’ll be drenched. We swung by our hostel for a quick shower because it was going to be a loooong day of travel to get to the next birding location, the remote island of Bangkaru. We were off to explore some little-known islands in hopes we might find some really rare birds. We said our goodbyes to Alec (who was heading back to Gunung Gede and Halimun) and boarded the plane. Stay tuned!