Bird watchers flock to Gede Pangrango National Park

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The growing popularity of bird watching among university students and environmentalists led the University of Indonesia's School of Natural Sciences and the Mount Gede Pangrango National Park to hold a bird watching walk on Saturday.

Held at the national park's Bodogol resort in Lido, Sukabumi, the event attracted 108 people from universities, bird watching groups and non-governmental organizations.

Ria Saryanthi of Birdlife Indonesia said bird watching had increased in popularity. The Indonesian Bird Friends organization now had around 1,400 members in Java, Bali and Sumatra, she said.

"Bird watching is an activity that can help preserve birds. It's better to see birds in their natural habitats instead of in cages," she said.

The Bodogol resort is the home to an estimated 107 of Indonesia's 1,500 species of birds. The most popular species found in the resort is the Elang Jawa (Spizaetus barielsi).

Ria called on the public to plant trees commonly used by birds to build their nests, such as bamboo.

"We have already done this in the Cikini Hospital and Borobudur Hotel grounds in Central Jakarta," she said. "We didn't choose Bogor because the city still has lots of trees like those in the Bogor Botanical Gardens and is surrounded by Mount Gede Pangrango, Mount Salah and Mount Halimun."

The group had also planted trees in Jakarta to help Jakartans release stress through bird watching there," she said.

An organizer from University Indonesia, Arum Krysan Purbawani, said the purpose of staging bird watching events was also to update the database on birds living around the resort.