Author: Sandrine Camus

A couple of months ago, we posted about Cologne Zoo and other institutions celebrating International Songbird Day.

The day had an artistic angle. The artist Rolf Jahn painted his “crazy birds” on a wall as a permanent artwork. Tattoo artists from four studios immortalized bird passion in a very original way and generously donated their fees to the Silent Forest campaign. Uwe Reetz – singer, songwriter and animator – helped by talented kids performed, in a German version, the beautiful songbird song from Ashley Fayth, in cooperation with Chester Zoo.

Watch a video summary of this beautiful day:

(also available in the Resource section of the website)

In support of the “Silent Forest” campaign, ZOO Wrocław (Poland) is organizing many activities for all age classes.

Last May, the first competition of knowledge for primary schools from all over Poland took place at the zoo. Thirty students from several cities participated after having learned about Songbirds on the zoo website. Very detailed questions were asked such as “Which species is the symbol of the islands of Nias?” and “What is the name of the national park where Bali Mynas’ breeding is carried out?”. Would you know the answers??

The winners were thrilled to meet the birds’ zookeeper and Balbinka, the owl!

Some events are currently carried out and you can still participate!

• Art competition from 04.2018 to 30.09.2018: make a sculpture of a Silent Forest flagship species.
• Photography competition from 03.2018-28.02.2019: take pictures of birds that are found in indicated places all over the world.

 

Other will soon start. Make sure to follow Zoo Wroclaw’s schedule so you don’t miss them.

A recycled birdhouse competition, related to Bird Watching journal, will happen from 01.11.2018 to 31.03.2019. A charity concert will be organized around October 2018 and a specific Silent Forest day will be celebrated in 2019.

Any other day of the year, visitors can still learn about Songbirds in the Africarium, where a Silent Forest exhibit was set up, and support the Campaign by purchasing a cute souvenir at the giftshop!

In support of the Silent Forest Campaign, ZOO Planckendael (Belgium) is raising awareness of the Songbirds fate in South East Asia.

They have created a beautiful exhibit informing about bird trafficking on markets, where colors come from bright cages rather than from free birds…

For those who can’t visit the zoo, here’s a sneak peek:

Photo credits: ZOO Planckendael

Author: Matyáš Adam (Liberec Zoo, Czech Republic)

Commemorative medal vending machines are in use in several European zoos already, selling coins with their favourite animals on them. So why not using them in favour of the Songbirds? Especially when children really love to bring souvenirs from their zoo visit!

Wroclaw Zoo (Poland) brought this awesome idea to life in cooperation with Cullinan company and Liberec Zoo. They have already helped spreading this fundraising tool to other zoos in Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Each vending machine sells medals for 1,5 – 2 EUR a piece (depending on the country) and the profit is being donated to the Silent Forest Campaign by both zoos and supplier!

An easy way to please your kids and help Songbirds conservation!

If zoos from other countries (preferably from Germany, France, Austria or Hungary) are interested in having the commemorative medal vending machine in their institutions, the supplier can provide both machine and coins without having to pay any extra costs.

For more information, please contact the Silent Forest Campaign office in Zoo Liberec: tesarova@zooliberec.cz.

Author: David Di Paolo (Mulhouse Zoo, France)

On 17th and 24th of June, the Silent Forest days took place in Mulhouse zoo.

How can we draw our visitors’ intention on Songbirds? That’s not so easy: birds are shy and sometimes hide when people come in their aviary… Thus we played birdcall recordings in our aviary to lure our Sumatran laughingtrush and Bali myna closer and make them sing!

Once close enough to observe them, people were more curious and receptive about what we had to share: the Sonbirds’ biology, their fate in the wild, how EAZA and its Members help to protect these animals and fight poaching etc.

Adults were invited to watch three videos talking about the Songbird crisis and deforestation, while kids participated to games on the same subject, bird origami workshops, colouring pictures or puzzles.

Discussions were extended from the Silent Forest campaign aims to local passerines, which are traditionally poached in some French areas and are confronted with environmental destruction in all Europe. Many visitors even asked how they could help passerines to live in their garden, giving us the opportunity to make a bound between the Silent forest and Let it grow campaigns!

We were very excited to highlight the unknown Songbirds for this campaign! These days also gave us the opportunity to bring up many different conservation subjects and fulfil an important mission of zoos!

Remember last month’s post Racing for Mynas?

The race is now over and was successfully finished by our two athletic birds enthusiasts!

Here are some updates from Joost Lammers (Birdpark Avifauna, The Netherlands).

“June 9^th, 7:30 am, we began our Trois Ballons adventure with great spirits and knowing we already collected more than €600,- for the Nias Hill Myna project. More than 9 hours later and 200 kilometres further we were both pretty exhausted and still had to do the final climb to Planche des Belles Filles, a well-known finish place from the Tour de France. Especially the last stretch to the finish with percentages up to 20% was extremely painful but we both succeeded and finished in a very acceptable time of 10 hours and a handful of minutes, both earning the silver medal. After finishing the race the contributions still came in and in total we raised €1182,77 for the Nias Hill Myna.”

Congratulations for the incredible achievement and many thanks for the contributions!

We are excited to report some of the amazing activities around the Silent Forest Campaign taking place at the Zoological and Botanical Garden Wilhelma in Stuttgart (Germany).

They have set up a beautiful exhibition in one of their historic greenhouses. It was launched for Conservation Day on the 21^st of May 2018 and raises awareness of the Asian Songbird crisis as well as the plight of the European songbirds. The activities accompanying the exhibition throughout the year include a drawing contest, early morning birding tours for families as well as workshops, where nesting boxes, seed dispensers or bird baths can be assembled and taken home.

Many children participated in the drawing contest on “How to help the Songbirds”. They won tickets to the Zoo as well as bird books and nesting boxes.

A fundraising lottery was organised and yielded 3000€ in just 4 days!

Finally, German speakers can read the article describing the campaign in the Wilhelma magazine by clicking on its cover.

Inspiring!!! Thank you so much for your support and involvement in the Silent Forest Campaign!

 

Photo credits: Wilhelma Zoo.

Authors: Simon Bruslund (Heidelberg Zoo, Germany) and Andrew Owen (Chester Zoo, UK)

Did you know that Green Magpies fade from vivid green to a turquoise blue when they don’t receive the correct diet?

It has long been known that the plumage of Green Magpies of the genus Cissa fade in colour when they are kept in captivity and it has always been unclear if it causes the birds any ill effects.

Although often pondering about this problem, it was, as is often the case, a coincidence which provided at least part of the answer. In Weltvogelpark in Walsrode in 2009 a plant-based supplement was given to other birds for other reasons by Simon. However, the Common Green Magpies in the collection were also given part of the same food for practical reasons. The transformation from the blue hue we had become accustomed to, back to a brilliant green was quite a surprise.

It was Andrew who picked up on the notion that we might be on to something as he tried it out on a much larger scale with the team in Cikananga, Java who had just started the conservation-breeding programme for the critically endangered Javan Green Magpie.

Several of the birds rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, which formed the foundation for the breeding programme were a dull blue colour, indicating they had been kept in cages on a poor diet for some time, while other birds were bright green, suggesting they had only recently been caught from the wild.

Research indicated that the Green Magpies’ bright green plumage is achieved with the help of a yellow carotenoid pigment called lutein, which is found in many leafy green plants. Without lutein in their diet, Green Magpies fade to pale turquoise-blue – the structural colour of their feathers.

But Green Magpies don’t eat plants, they feed mostly on large insects, insects which we must assume eat lots of lutein-rich plants.

To help keep the birds green, a powdered and dried flower did the trick, a supplement made from the marigold flower was added to the diet of the insects, which form part of the Magpies diet (the insects were also fed lots of leafy greens). The combination of blue and yellow perfectly produces Cissa green.

We now know that the vivid green colours of the Green Magpies of the genus Cissa and some other green insect-eating birds are maintained with the addition of the pigment lutein. Without this, the birds’ vibrant plumage will fade.  What we still do not know for sure is if these components also fulfill other functions for the bird, for example it is thought lutein may play an important role in the immune system. We now also believe that the pigment is so unstable, that the birds will also fade in bright sunlight. These birds naturally live in dark dense evergreen forests, where sunlight rarely penetrates to the forest floor.

The support given by EAZA institutions to the Silent Forest campaign helps us conserve these wonderful birds and in doing so, learn more about their biology.

We hope that sometime in the future, we will be able return the Javan Green Magpie to their mountain forest home.

Author: Julia Migné (Chester Zoo, UK)

We caught up with one of our Conservation Scholars and PhD student from Manchester Metropolitan University, Harry Marshall, to learn more about his research on the songbird crisis and the drivers affecting it.

South East Asian songbirds are currently facing a major extinction crisis evidently driven by the huge scale of trade in wild birds apparent in the region. In Indonesia, millions of birds are being caught and traded to supply the demand for keeping caged songbirds, a phenomenon that is strongly embedded within the local culture, and for new trends such as participating in songbird singing competitions.

Understanding the importance of songbird keeping within the local communities is essential to the creation of mitigation techniques. With an interdisciplinary background in anthropology and conservation, Chester Zoo Conservation Scholar Harry Marshall is investigating the social aspects of the trade using techniques such as questionnaire surveys, online sampling methods, and focus groups to create a picture of what drives people in Indonesia to keep songbirds. He says:

“We’ve known for a long time now that the biggest drivers of population declines in wild species are generally human activity. However, recently people are starting to realise that it’s hard to make any difference in conservation unless you are working with people and looking directly at the interactions between humans and wildlife that cause such declines.”

 

Once all the data are collected, Harry will analyse them and will present and discuss the results with the local communities involved in the project. By learning more about the local culture and people’s perceptions, we are hoping to facilitate change and promote more sustainable alternatives such as buying captive-bred songbirds instead of wild-caught ones.

Trade is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss at the moment and understanding the underlying reasons pushing people to exploit wildlife is crucial to find ways to mitigate its impact!

More info on Harry’s work in the Resources section.

Author: Simon Bruslund (Heidelberg Zoo, Germany)

When visiting Heidelberg zoo, you will find three permanent Silent Forest exhibitions: at the entrance, in the middle of the zoo and in the peasantry’s aviary. In addition, a mobile manned display table is active as often as possible and showcases the Songbird Crisis with dedicated flyers and several educative panels (provided by the campaign and one “homemade” panel on “SAVE the MAGIAO” project).

These exhibitions were launched on May 13^th, a day dedicated to Songbirds, and celebrated for the first time in Heidelberg Zoo. For the occasion, a Silent Forest Campaign fundraising was organized and resulted in more than 500€ raised.

A talkative Myna attracted the visitor’s attention! Not a real one of course. A lifelike toy, knitted by Simon Bruslund’s mother, with an electronic voice repeater inside. A great opportunity to start a dialogue about birds.

That day there were many opportunities to learn about the fantastic songbirds and their threats: the film Tainted Love by Eleanor Paris was playing; scientific experiments with UV light and bird calls proving the extraordinary senses of songbirds were performed; kids could create masks, their personal Silent Forest button or draw birds. The local Birdlife Partner, NABU-Heidelberg, was invited and very excited to participate.

Since Songbird Day, we are still collecting funds for the campaign, via a dedicated coin funnel or by selling bird stickers. These are “sold”, whenever possible, against a donation of 0.50€ minimum and can be placed on the large wall of the main exhibition showing an empty forest. By the end of the campaign we hope this “forest” will be full of symbolically released birds.

Sincere thanks and congratulations to our current staff member Angus Sünner and our former staff member Nikolina Rupic who heartwarmingly collected funds for the campaign at their wedding party last fall! A generous donation of 230 € was made.

Credit for all pictures: Zoo Heidelberg

Author: Simon Bruslund (Heidelberg Zoo, Germany)

May was the month of meetings for EAZA bird people: first the Threatened Asian Songbird Alliance (TASA) met to discuss current songbird project developments; then the Joint Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) Chair meetings took place for an update on global wildlife population management; finally, the Birds TAG’s meetings happened all in the beautiful setting of Budapest, kindly hosted by the Budapest zoo.

Especially the Passerine TAG who decided to use two full days to develop a part of their Regional Collection Plan (RCP) was very busy with evaluating the exhaustive list of species according to the new EAZA population management structure.

The new RCP process is thorough and evidence-based to determine priorities; hence it is very resource and time demanding.
Considering all the 6600 different Songbird species is therefore not feasible in a two-day meeting and the portion of reviewed species had to be limited. Given the Silent Forest campaign and the ongoing extinction crisis in Asia the TAG focused its efforts on Asian species. In close cooperation between the EAZA Executive Office (TAG liaison and Population biologists) and the TAG regional collection planning team, the number had been “short listed” to 145 species, prior to the meeting, using the previous RCP, the technical fact sheets of the campaign and many hours of reviews and research.

During the meeting, the experts discussed and identified the potential roles that these species could play as an ex situ population – e.g. conservation, education, research etc. – and subsequently determined the priorities and goals for each one. Finally, the group determined if an active management is needed to achieve these goals and issued their recommendations to establish or not a European Ex situ Programme (EEP).
For specialists, the staggering number of 23 EEPs recommended, of which 15 are completely new, may seem daunting. But it is actually not that many more programmes compared to the recommendations in the previous RCP. By grouping some species, it is becoming even more resource effective.

What has changed? Future songbird EEPs can have different levels of management and other specific tasks, which were not always covered in our old structures. For instance, Leafbirds and White-eyes have been suggested as EEPs with a research purposes. However, the participation and cooperation of all EAZA Members involved in a programme is still mandatory, unless specified otherwise, for the benefit of all.

As a result of this meeting, a very first new EEP application form was filled and will be submitted. Which other species could it be besides the Silent Forest campaign flagship and logo species – the Javan Green Magpie?

As you may know, the critically endangered Nias Hill myna (Gracula robusta) is one of the six Silent Forest Campaign flagship species and the project “Save Magiao: Nias Hill Myna Conservation Breeding Center” is entirely dedicated to its conservation.

To raise some money and help achieve the financial goals of this project, Dennis Appels and Joost Lammers, bird enthusiasts working in Birdpark Avifauna (The Netherlands), have started fundraising via the sponsorship of their participation to the Trois Ballons, one of the toughest one-day cycling races in Europe. The 214-km race with a total of 4400-m difference in altitude will take place in the French Vosges on the 9th of June.

Sponsor them in this brave challenge and help them save the Hill mynas!
For more information and/or to make donations, please click here.

Thank you for your support and good luck to Dennis and Joost!!

 

Author: Barbara Tesarova (Zoo Liberec, Czech Republic) 

Liberec Zoo is collecting old, but still functional, binoculars! When you visit us, don’t forget to bring yours or the ones given by your colleagues, schoolmates, friends… Leave them at the check-in desk at the entrance. They will be kept at the Silent Forest campaign office before being distributed to eco-centers across Indonesia via Green-books.org.  

This NGO aims at raising awareness of nature and sustainable practices in communities using children´s education and books as a starting point. Your discarded binoculars will help to advertise “birding”, to inspire local people in Asia to appreciate their environment and to stimulate their will to protect it. Also, well-guided birdwatching tours are trendy these days. Tourists enjoy them, creating a good opportunity for local guides to earn money. 

Several zoos are involved in this project. Don’t hesitate to ask your favorite zoo if they are and spread the word!

Author: Frantisek Pribrsky (Ostrava zoo, Czech Republic)

Indonesia has one of the highest number of bird species listed as threatened. Nevertheless, thousands of these endangered species are still being sold on local markets. Every fifth Indonesian household keeps caged birds as pet…

Due to socioeconomic reasons, there is lack of outdoor culture and families rarely have the luxury of going on trips in natural environment. Therefore, contacts with nature are limited and so is the population’s empathy toward wildlife.

However, this might change in the short future, thanks to the Disney Foundation! FREE AS A BIRD, a movement initiated by Ostrava Zoo, received a WAZA Nature Connect Grant. The 15.000 CHF will help support its goals aiming at shifting the locals’ mind by allowing families from urban areas to watch birds in the wild rather than in a cage.

Our main objective is to create bird-watching and educational activities (e.g. bird and plant identification using binoculars and fun-to-handle worksheets; eco-games; drama play etc.) to encourage local children and their parents towards long-lasting devotion to nature and environment. Experienced birding guides from Burung Indonesia (Indonesian BirdLife Partner) will be involved in this project.

With a deeper connection with local nature and practical concrete examples of how to care and conserve limited natural sources, we hope to achieve a mind shift with a real impact to the participants daily lives and behaviours. Providing a glimpse of what nature has to offer might help local populations understand the negative effects of poaching and bring them a desire to protect Birds in their natural habitat.

Remember Tainted love, the great documentary by University student Eleanor Paish? A year has passed already… The film has collected awards on festivals, subtitles have been translated to several languages and it´s being screened in several institutions over the world including Indonesia.

We are grateful the Silent Forest Campaign continues to inspire creativity.

Will you hear us, a new Belgian documentary investigating the meaning of the caged-bird tradition in Indonesia and its evolution through time, might be produced soon.

But the filmmakers need your help to bring the project to life and support the cost of the making stages from transportation, filming equipment, translating interviews to editing our final images.

Your contribution can help them show the world the immense beauty of these birds and shine a light on their dark future.

Please visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/286889863/will-you-hear-us-the-film/description and together, let’s make a difference.

Authors: Julia Migné (Chester Zoo, UK) and Lucia Schröder (Cologne Zoo, Germany)

As you might know, consumption of wild-caught South-east Asian Songbirds for trade, as pets, singing competitions, status symbols, religious ceremonies, traditional medicine and food are pushing many species to the brink of extinction. Zoos across Europe have joined forces to help tackle this crisis through the Silent Forest Campaign.

This year, the campaign participants are redoubling the efforts and celebrating International Songbird Day on 13 May with a wide range of activities in support of the campaign!

After having heard the finest of European singing at the Eurovision contest the day before, we will add to the singing frenzy for another day and will raise awareness about the Songbird crisis.

Cologne Zoo started the festivity on 6 May.

Starting before opening time, the participants enjoyed the special early morning atmosphere during an early bird guided tour to observe native songbirds with field guides, Members of bird life Germany (NABU).

The visitors could then take part in creative activities, such as face-painting, sheet coloring and mask hand-crafting, or behind the scenes guided tours to visit the breeding aviaries. Information about the campaign, “crazy birds” and native birds were available.

Art was predominant during the day. The artist Rolf Jahn painted his “crazy birds” on a wall as a permanent artwork. Tattoo artists from four studios immortalized bird passion in a very original way and generously donated their fees to the Silent Forest campaign. Uwe Reetz – singer, songwriter and animator – performed, in a German version, the beautiful songbird song from Ashley Fayth, in cooperation with Chester Zoo.

6300 visitors attended the event! What a success!

Next week-end, Songbird Day will be celebrated in several institutions.

On Sunday 13 from 10 am to 5 pm, Heidelberg Zoo will be offering information, activities, games and fun around Bird conservation and the Silent Forest campaign. Bird stickers will be distributed against a donation. Visitors will be able to stick them onto a large Rainforest wall so that hopefully, at the end of the campaign, the symbolic forest will be full of birds again!

From Sunday 13 to Friday 18 May, Chester Zoo is organizing activities to learn more about illegal bird markets and the different conservation actions in the zoo and in the Asian field (see detailed schedule below).

Many more zoos participate to the Silent Forest Campaign, don’t hesitate to visit your favorite zoo’s website or Facebook page to see if activities are organised next week-end.

 

Author: Maria Antonieta Costa (Lisbon Zoo, Portugal)

Lisbon ZOO challenged a class of 12^th graders from the Secondary Art School António Arroio in Lisbon – finalist students of the Communication Design Course – during their Training in Work Context to imagine ways to raise awareness of the Songbird crisis.

The challenge was to present a leaflet for visitors illustrating a story that will be the basis of the campaign activities in the zoo.

After a session on zoo’s conservation work and Songbirds, as well as a visit at the zoo to observe birds, the students worked on the proposals.

In addition to creating amazing stories, they surprised us with beautiful serigraphs for each of the species whose sale will revert to the campaign!

Congratulations to all of them for this great initiative!

 

Author: Newquay Zoo, United Kingdom

One of the most endangered songbirds in the world has arrived at Newquay Zoo. The Cornish charity zoo is one of only five collections in Europe where Javan green magpies can be seen, making them the rarest species at the zoo.

Native to Java, in Indonesia, the Javan green magpie maintains its vibrant green feathers through a diet rich in vitamins and pigments like luteins. Senior Bird Keeper Gary Ward: “The most important challenge in caring for the green magpies is making sure the insects they eat are loaded with the correct amount of luteins and nutrients to keep their feathers that lovely green.” These magpies are omnivorous –they like a bit of ripe papaya along with insects and mice.

Part of the Corvid family and closely related to crows, the Javan green magpie has a very extensive vocabulary, making it a prime target for the trade in songbirds. Ward: “I hear a different call from them every day, they’re amazing, noisy birds.”

As a result of ongoing trapping pressure from the songbird trade and suitable habitat lost to palm oil plantations, the population of this species is falling at an alarming rate. Its future is likely to be in zoos.   Newquay Zoo’s latest exhibit ‘Gems of the Jungle’ has been created to highlight the issues surrounding the caged bird trade.

The Zoo hopes to help the Javan green magpie by breeding this pair. Although they are currently not old enough, Ward comments: “I’ve noticed them beginning to dance around one another, a sign of courting, so hopefully they could breed soon. We will provide her with the materials she needs to build a nest in the hope that we can begin to play our part in the conservation of this magnificent species. It is imperative that we learn about these birds to prevent their extinction.”

Authors: Jan Kužník (Technet.cz, Prague, Czech Republic) and Matyáš Adam (Zoo Liberec, Czech Republic)

Birds, insects, hedgehogs, frogs, wildlife. Thousands of animals on Slow Radio http://www.slowradio.cz/en.

After the winter break, Slow Radio starts again. It broadcasts live, continuously and through professional microphones from a secret place in the middle of a bird paradise in southern Bohemia. Listen to it from your desktop or mobile phone.

Slow Radio started to broadcast last spring in cooperation with Technet.cz and the Czech Society for Ornithology. Thanks to the Silent Forest Campaign, that became a partner of the project this year, Slow Radio can cross the Czech borders and people from around the world will be able to listen to our Songbirds.

The best listening is always early in the morning when nature wakes up or in the evening before the birds pause. At night, listening changes literally to a horror radio drama without words.

When listening to the radio, you can think about the state of our nature. Slow Radio is evidence that there are still places in our country where nature is the dominant, but it is not completely free from the noise caused by human activity. You will sometime hear human voices and the noise of cars, aircraft or agricultural machines. Although the main road is many kilometers away from the broadcasting station, you can hear the truck over the loud voices of the Songbirds.

Silence is never part of the forest.

The sensitive microphones do not only record birds singing, but also all possible sounds – the movement of millions of leaves and twigs in the breeze or wind, the buzzing of hundreds of thousands of flies, mosquitoes, beatles, the rustle of various animals in leaves and grasses … and, of course, drops of rains or sound of thunder.

Put your headphones on and step into the Czech Republic forests…

Congratulations to Cologne Zoo, Germany, for their significant involvement in the Silent Forest Campaign!

This time, it is via colorful articles in the Kölner Zoo Magazin (edition Summer 2018) that they raise awareness of Southeast Asian Songbirds status but also of their European counterparts situation. They especially talk about the Bird of the year 2018: the Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris).

German speakers, you can read the complete magazine here.

Also have a look at page 11, listing all the Bird-related events happening in Cologne Zoo in 2018!

 

No need to be a big zoo or non-profit organization to raise awareness for wildlife conservation and help fight the Songbirds crisis: meet Alyssa Rice and her amazing All the birds project.

Passionate about animals, Alyssa promotes conservation through her drawings. She suggested three conservation projects to her followers who voted for the Silent Forest Campaign! We are so grateful for that! Thank you so much!

The very realistic and super cute illustrations of Birds are based on the most recent International Ornithological Committee Life List+.

Alyssa sends stickers and prints of her drawings against donations, that will be generously offered to the campaign.

Donations can be made until the 20^th of April 2018, please find all the information here.

 

What a great initiative!

 

 

 

 

Author: Ruth Dieckmann (Cologne Zoo, Germany)

The 20^th of March 2018 is World Sparrow Day!

Sparrows are in serious decline in Europe, not because of the Asian Songbird Crisis or trade but because of their decreasing access to food and nesting grounds near Human settlements.

 

In Germany, the populations of House sparrows (Passer domesticus) have declined by 30% on average. In some cities, it is even by more than 50% over the past 25 years.

 

Zoos often provide better living spaces and the ground of zoo’s sometimes holds above average densities of Sparrows similar to the way populations were several decades ago.

 

Together with local environmental authorities, the local birdlife partner Cologne Zoo started a very successful Sparrow project last year as a part of the previous EAZA campaign “Let it Grow”.

A photo competition, an exhibition about sparrows, plantings in schoolyards, building nesting boxes and a children’s book about the life of a Sparrow are some of the activities achieved. The project was recently certificated as UN project on Biodiversity.

Wouldn’t it be great if more zoos presented their projects for Sparrows next year on the 20^th of March?

Author: Constanze Mager (Burgers’ Zoo, Arnhem, The Netherlands)

Even though the whole world seems to be skyping – and the campaign team certainly does quite regularly skype with each other – a face to face meeting every once in a while is really useful, too. Unfortunately, travelling across Europe to see each other is rather time-consuming, costly and not too great for our CO2 footprint. All arguments for ourselves and for our directors to keep the number of factual meetings low.

But, when a few of us come together anyway for another meeting, we surely take our chance to stick our heads together and discuss.
Lately, such an opportunity arose during the ‘German speaking zooeducators conference’ (in short VZP, which is of course an abbreviation that absolutely makes no sense in English!), in the Northwestern city of Nordhorn. Almost a hundred zooeducators gathered at Nordhorn zoo for a three days meeting. Amongst them, three educators active in the specialist group for the Silent Forest Campaign.

Lucia from Cologne zoo gave a talk on the campaign during the conference. After the official part with presentations and workshops, we quickly met to chat by. Nicolina from Karlsruhe Zoo created bird masks, drawings and material to be used in schools. Also, she has written down an interview with a conservationist busy at the bird rescue and breeding centre Cikananga on Java. That interview will be placed on the website soon.

We discussed the reaction of our education colleagues on the campaign and brainstormed about further steps in creating and translating material as well as evaluating zoo visitors’ knowledge about the campaign’s focus species and goals.

So, even if it rather seems quiet from our group at the moment: be sure that still a lot is going on behind the scenes!

Author: Simon Bruslund (Heidelberg Zoo, Heidelberg, Germany)

The Erfurt Museum of Natural History, Germany, is presenting an exhibition about illegal bird trapping and have included extensive information on the Silent Forest Campaign. For this purpose, the Museum signed up as a non-EAZA participant to the campaign in preparation of the exhibition. This is an excellent showcase of not only the Asian Songbird Crisis but also of how Songbirds were and are still being trapped right here in Europe.

Not only zoos, but other zoological institutions can participate in EAZA Conservation campaigns, and help informing the public and raising awareness about conservation issues. The exhibition called “Hunted – trapped – killed: Illegal bird-catching in Europe” at the Natural history museum of Erfurt is a perfect example of that.

As the dramatic title indicates, the exhibition mainly focuses on the problems with illegal hunting and killing of birds in the Mediterranean and other countries in Europe. In the wake of the exhibition, the Asian songbird crisis is also addressed with pictures and some of the campaign material. The world class taxidermists of the museum also prepared a singing White-rumped Shama (Kittacincla malabarica) in the setting of an original Javanese bamboo birdcage.

“We had key species of the Silent forest campaign in our collection, so it seemed appropriate to take part in the campaign” says conservation biologist Florian Schäfer, who curated the exhibition. A threaded bird species links the Asian Songbird Crises to Europe: The Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola), which occurs from northeastern Europe to far-eastern Asia, have shown a dramatic decline of over 90% within only 30 years throughout its range due to unsustainable trapping.

The exhibition is running from 09.02.2018 until 02.04.2018.  It’s not too late to check it out!

Author: Chris Green (Cotswold Wildlife Park, Oxfordshire, UK)

The Emei Shan Liocichla (Liocichla omeiensis) also known as Mt. Omei Babblers are one of five, restricted range, species in the genus which are among the smaller members of the Laughingthrush family.

This species is internationally protected in CITES Appendix II and also locally fully protected in the province of Sichuan. Since 1999, the export of wild birds from China has been banned, but this legislation is difficult to enforce and birds have been seen in bird markets as far away as Sumatra in recent years. This illustrates the very real need to continue working with this species in a sustainable captive breeding program.

In their natural habitat, in the sacred Omei Mountains, they are more often heard than seen. Yet, the open access paper co-authored by Simon Dowell (Chester zoo, UK) describes their nesting behaviour in the wild.

They are smallish and lively birds with a distinctive sexual dimorphism with the male’s colourful undertail-coverts. Their lovely voice is melodic and moving and is frequently heard in an aviary.

Emei Shan Liocichlas do very well in heavily planted aviaries with dense vegetation suitable for nesting. Plants such as bamboo, conifer and laurel are ideal and provide the right structure to allow the birds to build their cup-shaped nests. Nest baskets can be provided for the birds to build their nests in and they will prefer to use coconut fibre and fine grasses as nest material. These birds can be fed on a diet of good quality insectivore mix and a variety of fruit chopped into small cubes so the birds can easily swallow it. During breeding, they require supplement of good quality live food.

We currently have 20 collections holding Emei Shan Liocichlas and the population is growing. However, it is not yet demographically stable. More holders are therefore needed so breeding can continue.

There are no new institutions on this year’s waiting list yet: a perfect opportunity to add this interesting and campaign relevant species to your collection!

Dear fellow aviculturists, if you feel you can house a pair of this enigmatic babbler species please get in touch with me at chrisgreen@cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk!