Chester Zoo joins global race to save one of the world’s most endangered birds
Chester Zoo is playing a central role in an international emergency plan to save one of the world’s rarest birds, with fewer than 250 Javan green magpies believed to survive on the planet.
The zoo cares for 12 of the approximately 130 birds held within the entire global conservation breeding population, a programme it helped establish at the Cikananga Wildlife Centre in West Java more than a decade ago.
Bird specialists from Chester Zoo were among 48 international experts who travelled to Indonesia to help shape a new ten-year action plan for the species, developed at a four-day workshop in late 2025.
The plan sets out more than 80 actions to be carried out over the next ten years, covering illegal trade networks, habitat loss, breeding programmes and the eventual reintroduction of birds into protected wild habitats.
Survey teams searching across 12 mountains in Java failed to find a single Javan green magpie in the field, a finding the zoo said brought home the scale of the threat facing the species.
The bird, known in Indonesia as the Ekek Geling, a name derived from the Sundanese community’s description of its call, was historically prized for its song and became caught up in Indonesia’s competitive songbird trade.
Despite being legally protected in Indonesia, the species continues to be traded covertly through WhatsApp and Facebook.
The action plan brings together government bodies, conservation organisations, specialist groups from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and zoos from Indonesia and across the world.
Chester Zoo’s partners at the Cikananga Wildlife Centre are now working with the Indonesian government to strengthen official backing for the plan, while conservationists are preparing the ground for future reintroductions.
Corinne Bailey, Regional Field Programme Senior Manager for South East Asia at Chester Zoo, said: “We are now planning the final details of conservation translocations, drawing on conservation breeding of the Javan green magpie, as well as preparing in situ community and poacher engagement to reduce the threat posed by the illegal wild songbird trade.”
The zoo’s involvement with the species began in 2012, when it helped establish the first conservation breeding programme at the Cikananga Wildlife Centre, providing funding for new aviaries and expertise in husbandry.
In 2015, six pairs were transferred to Chester to establish a further insurance population in Europe.
Andrew Owen, Chester Zoo’s Head of Birds, who has led the zoo’s involvement with the species since its earliest days and co-authored the plan, said: “This is a bird that most people have never heard of, and that’s part of the problem.
“The Javan green magpie is running out of time, and running out of places to hide.
“When survey teams searched across mountain after mountain in Java and found nothing, it brought home just how desperate the situation has become.
“Chester Zoo has been fighting for this species for over a decade.
“We helped build the breeding programme that now holds almost every individual known to exist.
“But while conservation breeding buys time, it isn’t a solution on its own.
“This new action plan is about giving the species a future in the wild.
“That’s what drives us.”
The Conservation Action Plan for the Javan Green Magpie covers the period 2026 to 2035 and was jointly organised by the IUCN SSC Asian Songbird Trade Specialist Group and the IUCN SSC Indonesia Species Specialist Group.
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