30 May White-bellied Herons: Endangered & Lonely, But Not Alone
A lone male White-bellied Heron stands on its nest. Its breeding plumes flow elegantly in the wind as it gazes up and down Bhutan’s Puna Tsang Chhu (River). The bird stretches its neck high, puffs out its chest, turns from side to side, then diligently preens every feather, ensuring each is in top form. I stand on a cliff on the opposite shore watching as this regal bird repeats this behavior again and again – stretch tall, puff chest, gaze from side to side, then preen conspicuously. Surely this male is at the pinnacle of its breeding beauty, its nest built sturdily on a cushion of dead vines atop a hardwood tree overlooking the river – what female could resist? Yet no female is there to watch and with fewer than 30 birds documented in Bhutan’s wilds, this male’s display may never be seen by a potential mate.
From where I stand, this male and his nest are a mere speck that I never would’ve noticed without the aid of Thinley Phuntsho, Sonam Tshering, and Jigme Tshering, members of the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN) team that has been monitoring Bhutan’s White-bellied Herons for nearly 20 years. They knew where to look with a spotting scope because there was also a nest at this location last year. That nest failed. Even worse, they found a dead White-bellied Heron on this stretch of river. The men point out a series of electric lines crisscrossing the water and tell us this was the likely cause of death. Injuries from flying into electric wires are apparently a significant risk for this species and increasingly so as development stretches across the foothills of the Himalayas, concentrating along the fast-flowing rivers that are the sole habitat for White-bellied Herons.
Despite being the second largest heron in the world, White-bellied Herons are shy birds that readily surrender their nests and abandon their homes when disturbed. This is an evolutionary trait meant to protect adults, keeping them safe from danger to ensure these long-lived animals survive to breed another day and sustain the population, but disturbances abound. White-bellied Herons once populated Himalayan foothill waterways from India and Nepal, through Bhutan into Myanmar and China, but are now thought to be extirpated from all but a few locations. They were relatively unknown from Bhutan until the fourth King took note of one in the 1970s. Since then, the RSPN was formed and has led the charge in White-bellied Heron conservation. Utilizing teams of volunteers and staff from partner organizations across the country, they painstakingly survey all potential habitat, much of it barely accessible, during the heron’s breeding season each year and have been doing so since 2003. No more than 30 adults and five nests have ever been recorded, a sobering statistic considering that Bhutan houses half the entire world’s population of White-bellied Herons. This is one of the most endangered animals in the world.
I’m concerned for the future of the species as I watch the lone male pose upon what will likely be an unused nest. At this late stage in the season, he likely senses that his time to find a mate and successfully nest is dwindling for the year, but how could he know that he’s one of the last members of the world’s most endangered heron? That the chances of a female passing by to note his splendor are slim? There are myriad reasons for this species’ current demise, but I can’t help but recall the new dam we drove past not far up river. I can’t help but wonder how that dam and all the electric lines I see crisscrossing the river might be affecting this male’s chances not just of finding a mate, but of surviving. Dams alter landscapes, vegetation, and aquatic communities, including the fish these herons require for food. Yet rivers are a seemingly boundless resource in Bhutan and dam-based energy is one of the country’s most lucrative exports. More dams will come. I can’t help but worry that this will bring more lone White-bellied Herons as I watch the one display futilely before me, but the RSPN team is more optimistic.
The RSPN has been working quietly in the background with government officials, community partners, and the energy company. They’re not likely to stop the building of dams, but perhaps they can influence the where and how to minimize impacts. It’s unclear what the future will hold, but it is clear that their advocacy efforts are making a difference. So far it’s been promised that one river in the country will remain undammed and the energy company built RSPN a new, state of the art facility dedicated to White-bellied Heron conservation. The educational display at this White-bellied Heron Conservation Center is excellent, including TV monitors on which visitors can glimpse the facility’s true purpose – a captive breeding program to ensure White-bellied Herons never go extinct.
Samten Leki, the staff animal husbandry professional, shows us the veterinary hospital. Thinley, Sonam, and Jigme show us new flight cages being built to house more breeding pairs, a fish pond being built to stock food for the birds, and two completed flight cages, one housing a rescued injured bird they rehabilitated paired with an adult they successfully hatched and reared from an egg, a first for this species. I quietly follow Thinley into this cage, marveling as the resident male eyes me warily. He watches my every step, keeping me squarely in view at the tip of his bill where his binocular vision works best. I’m told the staff have been training the birds to be less fearful of humans in the hopes that someday head-started birds from their facility will be less susceptible to human disturbance once released into the wild. It seems to have worked with this bird at least, it continues to stare me down, holding its post and refusing to fly. The true highlight of the tour, however, comes late in the day.
The program’s lead scientist, Indra Prasad Acharja, had masterminded an elaborate plan. Hoping to save eggs from a remote nest that had been raided by monkeys and other predators each of the last four years, he planned to collect them and bring them to the facility for hatching. He’d arranged for a helicopter to meet them at the nest site to smoothly and quickly transport the eggs back to the White-bellied Heron Conservation Center. As luck would have it, this monumental undertaking coincided with the day collaborators were visiting from RSPN’s partner, BirdLife International – a convoy I had the honor of joining. Indra’s team left well before sunrise and, having confirmed that the helicopter was coming, they’d collected the eggs, packaged them carefully, and then waited, and waited. The helicopter never arrived, apparently detained by unnavigable weather. Undoubtedly discouraged but not to be defeated, Indra and his team handheld their precious cargo for several hours as they navigated the rough and rocky roads back to the Center. We returned from watching that lone heron on its empty nest just in time to see the coveted, unbroken eggs being weighed and placed in an incubator.
There will no doubt be more lone herons in the future, but these birds are not alone – there’s a dedicated crew fighting to ensure that White-bellied Herons won’t be the most endangered heron in the world forever. The four eggs that endured that rough road rescue? They hatched a few days later. The parents of those chicks? They laid three replacement eggs in their nest. And that one lone male so desperately displaying? A lady White-bellied Heron did find him. As of our last communication, the couple was incubating three lovely eggs. The RSPN team deserves to be optimistic.
If you would like to learn more and support RSPN’s White-bellied Heron conservation work, please visit https://www.rspnbhutan.org/.
Indra Acharja
Posted at 23:52h, 30 MayDear Kirsten, thanks for this lovely article. For me, this is an eloquent display of mission with a grim hope of success. I genuinely hope one-day White-bellied Heron will not be the rarest heron in the world! Thanks for visiting the White-bellied Heron Conservation Center and for this lovely story.
Jigme Tshering
Posted at 23:56h, 30 MayThank you for visiting us.
Barend van Gemerden
Posted at 09:45h, 14 AugustThank you Kirsten of sharing this wonderful story. And a huge thank you to RSPN for making such incredible efforts to avoid the extinction of White-bellied Herons. Please keep up the great work you are doing.