Help name Jersey Zoo’s first Javan green magpie chick

Sunday 25 March 2018

Salamat, Musim, Indra or Eko? Jersey Zoo cannot decide on a name for their first Javan green magpie chick, which was recently bred by bird keepers, and are asking islanders to help.

Javan Green Magpies get their bright green plumage through diet and can turn blue if they don't eat the correct food. They are a critically endangered bird species with a population of only about 100 individuals living in the wild.

Hester Whitehead, a Senior Bird Keeper at the Zoo, is thrilled about the new addition to the Bird Department. She said: “We are extremely pleased to have bred Jersey
Zoo’s first Javan green magpie and we hope that he will be the first of many!”
 
The Javan green magpie is critically endangered, primarily due to poaching for the illegal songbird trade. The huge demand for captive songbirds is leading to many species being forced to the brink of extinction, particularly the more vocal and brightly coloured species, such as the Bali starling, Sumatran laughingthrush and of course, the Javan green magpie. This demand is giving rise to the Asian songbird crisis posing a very real threat of the complete loss of some of the region’s prettiest and most unusual birds. Other threats to this species include habitat loss and degradation, driven by agricultural expansion, logging and mining.

 Pictured: Jersey Zoo is only one of three zoos in Europe to have Javan green magpies.

The new chick, a male which hatched in August 2017, is a fantastic news for the species. He is now part of a captive population that will help to repopulate the Javan green magpie’s native habitat in the future. The entire European captive population is held between Jersey Zoo, who have three individuals, and two other zoos in Chester Zoo and Prague. The latter first bred Javan green magpies in 2016 while Chester Zoo holds the majority of the population of 22 birds, and are responsible for bringing them into Europe.
 
Ms Whitehead commented: “We’re proud to be part of the team of aviculturalist breeding Javan green magpies. It's crucial that we establish a captive population of this beautiful, Critically Endangered bird, before it disappears from its native forests.”

 Video: Jersey Zoo's three Javan Green Magpies.

Durrell is also proud to be part of EAZA’s Silent Forest campaign, which aims to address and mitigate the ongoing songbird extinction crisis in Asia, and increase awareness within and beyond the zoo community. Durrell’s Bird Department is taking a leading role in designing all facilities and husbandry protocols for one of the Silent Forest projects, the Sumatran Songbird Sanctuary, located in North Sumatra Province. They will also lead on the training of veterinary personnel and keeping staff at the sanctuary. 

The bird keepers at Jersey Zoo have selected a few Indonesian names, but they are now asking islander to decide on one for the chick. The suggestions are: 

• Salamat, a national park in Java where Javan green magpies are found
• Musim, Indonesian for ‘season’
• Hijau, an Indonesian adjective, which describes the colour ‘emerald green
• Gilang, Malay for ‘bright, glittering, splendid’
• Eko, ‘first’ in Javanese
• Satu, Indonesian for ‘one’, with the hope that there will be ‘two’, ‘three’ in the future!
• Indra, god of seas and skies

Islanders can cast a vote for their favourite name on Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Facebook page.